Half a million more Scots know CPR

St John Scotland is a partner in the Save a Life for Scotland campaign, which was set up in 2015 as part of a national strategy to improve survival from cardiac arrest.

Knowing that one of the biggest factors that would improve survival rates was equipping more members of the public with the skills and confidence to step in, the campaign set out with the ambitious target to equip half a million more people with CPR skills by 2020.

And over the past few years, St John Scotland volunteers up and down the country have been taking this message to their local communities.

From shopping centres to summer fairs, community drop-ins to youth group meetings, we have helped thousands more people learn the skills to save a life.

Lisa MacInnes, Director of the Save a Life for Scotland campaign, said: “In October 2015, the target of reaching 500,000 seemed a long way off. However, with the hard work and dedication of the fantastic Save a Life for Scotland partnership we have surpassed this milestone over a year ahead of schedule.

“This amazing achievement belongs to every person who helped spread the life-saving message of CPR across communities throughout Scotland, and especially the 500,000 folks living in Scotland who took time to stop and learn. Working in partnership together really has saved lives.”

We want to send a big thank you to all the hard-working St John Scotland volunteers who have been part of this amazing achievement.

Having 500,000 more lifesavers is fantastic – but we won’t stop there. Survival rates are improving but we can still do better. We’ll continue to work with communities across Scotland to raise awareness of cardiac arrest, support them to install public access defibrillators, and keep on reaching out to help more people learn CPR.