MORE than 50 people have taken part in free CPR training sessions, inspired by the death of a York woman after a suspected heart attack.

The three cardiopulmonary resuscitation lessons were organised by Benjamin Churchill and took place at the weekend at Yormed Ambulance Service’s HQ in Little Hallfield Road.

Benjamin’s father-in-law, Steve Harris, told last month how he had felt “absolutely useless” when his wife, Janine, suffered a suspected heart attack, because he had no idea how to perform CPR.

He said that after finding her not breathing at their home in Derwenthorpe, he had started trying to perform CPR before her three carers took over, two of whom had only recently taken part in an-depth CPR course.

Paramedics then took over in a 45- minute, but ultimately vain, battle to save Janine, 49, who suffered from motor neurone disease.

He said: “I was totally useless, unable to do the right thing, panicking and crying. If on my own, my wife would have died there and then.”

He said Janine had instead died when the doctors “pulled the plug” with the family’s blessing, enabling them to say goodbye to her and her youngest daughter Megan to hold her hand as she passed away.

He said Benjamin, who was married to his and Janine’s daughter Chantelle, was a British armed forces medic in Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2010, who now ran a business providing CPR training.

He had wanted to ensure Steve and others would know what to do in future if they came across someone suffering heart failure and Ashley Mason, chief of operations at Yormed, had offered the room free of charge for the sessions.

Steve, a former kitman for York City Knights rugby league club, said yesterday that a total of 51 people had attended the sessions, including players from York City Knights and assistant coach Will Leatt.

He said York taxi driver Gary Dodson, whose wife was a friend of with Janine’s, also persuaded fellow drivers to attend after they realised that most of them had no idea of how to do CPR.

Saf Din, chairman of the York Hackney Carriage Association, said nine drivers took part in the course, and gained an invaluable knowledge, and he hoped they would be given certificates to show they had completed it.

He said that he and other association members felt that CPR training should be a mandatory requirement in York for taxi and private hire drivers as part of the licensing process. He also felt it should be compulsory for other public transport providers such as bus drivers. He felt such training, along with carrying a first aid kit in their taxis, would be just as valuable to taxi drivers as carrying a fire extinguisher in their cars, which they were already obliged to do as part of their licence requirements.