It is Heart Month – which makes perfect sense as we see hearts all over the place for Valentines Day.

As a Scout Leader, I have to renew my first aid every 3 years, including CPR. It is one of the benefits of being a volunteer – so many people I know have never taken a first aid course or if they have it was when they were a Scout or Guide many years ago.

And I remember way back as Guide Leader when I was at university, one of my friends – a mature student who had not long had a baby – told me how she thought of me as her baby experienced a severe apnea attack. She remembered how to give CPR to a baby because she learnt how to as Guide as a child. Her baby could have died or suffered brain damage if she hadn’t known what to do.

So while, as a nutritionist, I could write all about how to look after your heart and heart healthy food but I want to do as I did last year and ask some questions.

Do you know how to use a defibrillator?

Do you know how to do CPR?

Do you know that you are most likely to need those skills for someone that you know? Someone important to you?

Knowing CPR can save someone’s life. Having the confidence to step forward and manage a situation, to do something because you have taken a short course is powerful. You might never need the skills you learn but you just never know.

The British Heart Foundation has courses that are just 15 minutes long.

A quarter of an hour of your time that might mean you have the skills to save a life.

That is my challenge to you – by the end of February, if you haven’t taken a CPR course or it’s out of date (more than 3 years ago) then do it.

Public Service Announcement over!