FOUR business owners have set themselves the ambitious goal of getting more than 500 people trained to become life-savers in just one day.

Free sessions on how to give CPR and use a defibrillator are being offered on Wednesday, October 16.

Organisers hope companies will send their entire workforce to the event which is also open to university students and staff.

SeBeau Health Visiting, Mini First Aid, Orchestrate Events and Perks Marketing joined forces to arrange the event, which is being supported and hosted by the University of York.

October 16 is Restart a Heart Day, a national bid led by The Resuscitation Council (UK), with the British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, St John Ambulance, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Saving Lives for Scotland, to raise awareness of cardiac arrest and teach CPR to as many people as possible.

Michele Trevor, of Mini First Aid, said: “The idea is, you can come along to one of the training sessions; it will take just half an hour of your time and you should leave feeling confident enough to give CPR if you needed to. I am always surprised by how few people know how to do it.”

Nina Copely, of Orchestrate Events, said: “I couldn't believe the stats when I heard them. The Government launched a fantastic initiative at the beginning of the year to get school children trained to give CPR, but what about everyone else?”

The Government announced CPR training would be added to the curriculum for secondary school children based on learnings from overseas. In some countries that already teach CPR in schools, cardiac arrest survival rates are more than double those of the UK.

Kerry Perks, Perks Marketing, said: "We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target of training 500-plus people on the day. That would be incredible. We’re hoping that local business will get involved and arrange to send over entire teams to be trained.”

Kim Brown, of SeBeau Health Visiting, added: “We’ll also be covering how to use an AED, defibrillator.

"There are so many more of them around these days, but not many people would have the confidence to use one if they needed to.”

Register your place at one of the sessions at www.facebook.com/events/915664022130725/ Groups larger than 10 people are asked to arrange a time slot by phoning 07505479082 or email info@perksmarketing.co.uk