Students from a local school are being taught to cope with life-threatening medical emergencies thanks to a joint initiative by the Welsh Ambulance Service and the British Heart Foundation.

Staff at Pembroke School have been trained in first aid and resuscitation techniques and the school equipped with training dummies.

It is all part of a project funded by the BHF with training provided at Pembroke in first aid and resuscitation by Welsh Ambulance Service paramedic Bryn Hazelden, the public access defibrillator officer for Central and West Wales. Across Wales, over 800 teachers from 249 schools have been trained to pass on life-saving skills and that includes 23 schools in Pembrokeshire.

Bryn works alongside ambulance in cshools officer for Wales, Mike Cowley, who said: "The most recent figures show that over 6,000 pupils aged from five to 18 have been trained across Wales, but by now it could be many more and this means they now know what steps they should take if someone suffers a heart attack in front of them.

"Obviously we don't teach five-year-olds how to do CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), but we teach them how to call for help and older children can certainly learn life-saving techniques.

"I've been a paramedic for many years and the best thing when an ambulance arrives at the scene is to find someone carrying out CPR on the patient.

"That gives them the best chance of survival and the more people we can train the more lives can be saved and the earlier we can train them the better." Bryn added: "This is about skills for life and we want to make it part of the curriculum so that every child who leaves school in Wales will know how to carry out CPR.

"There's plenty of evidence to suggest that the reason heart attack survival rates in Europe are higher than in the UK is that there is more CPR training there."

Pembrokeshire has a proud record of providing first aid training in its schools through the 'Crucial Crew' initiative which each year sees up to 1,500 Year Six pupils given training by Welsh Ambulance Service emergency crew members who give their own time to the project.

Over the past 15 years, over 20,000 pupils have been given training and Bryn said: "Pembrokeshire was the first county in Wales to get involved with this. "It's meant to be fun and it is, but it is fun with a purpose and the children really enjoy it." Victoria Jeffries, community resuscitation co- ordinator for the British Heart Foundation in Wales, said: "The role of the schools training officer in Wales is an extremely valuable one - it has enabled a staggering growth in Heartstart UK school activity, over the past two years.

"We are delighted that so many schoolchildren are being trained in emergency life support skills - vital steps that someone should take if someone suffers a heart attack in front of them. "Our hope now is that this work will be mainstreamed by the Welsh Ambulance Service, as the BHF funding for the role is now coming to an end."

Mike Cowley has been in post for two years as the ambulance in schools officer for Wales and among the initiatives he has pioneered has been a Welsh language CD Rom which teachers can use.

He added: "I can't speak Welsh myself, but I can teach the teachers and they can then go back to the school and use this to teach the techniques through the medium of Welsh." That's just part of the package which the BHF has funded and which, as well as the training, also includes a schools pack with posters, certificates and information and a training mannequin. He said: "It's been a very positive and popular scheme and the kids have taken to it very enthusiastically while it also falls in line with the policy of Welsh Assembly Government Education Minister Jane Hutt who wants all pupils to learn first aid. "I have worked with the Healthy Schools co- ordinators across Wales to organise training and it has gone very well and the teachers and pupils love it. "The kids pick it up very quickly; they're like sponges, and they think it's the bee's knees. "Seconds save lives and the quicker someone can do something in an emergency, then the better it is for the patient."

Any Pembrokeshire schools interested in joining the scheme can contact Pembrokeshire County Council's PE and school sports co-ordinator, Mandy Johns, on 01437 776189.