The Wilson Partners team add life-saving skills to their capabilities

This month saw the Wilson Partners team take part in a firm wide first aid training course put on by St John Ambulance. Julie, the trainer from St John Ambulance, carried out the course at the Wilson Partners offices where the team learned the basics of first aid while also having a lot of fun in the process. On completing the course Allan Wilson said “Learning together is all part of the Wilson Partners culture and Julie made it a training session to remember for all the right reasons.”

Ross Wilson, who is campaigning heavily for more awareness in business of the need to be prepared to offer first aid, was himself involved in giving first response CPR to a friend of his over the summer. His friend collapsed on a golf course in Surrey after suffering a major heart attack. Ross had previously attended first aid courses run by St John Ambulance in Maidenhead and as a result was able to spring into action. His friend has since made an amazing recovery all down to the action taken at the time. His cardiac surgeons had no doubt that first response CPR had saved his friend’s life.

Ross commented “There are so many times in life when basic first aid can be so valuable – just being able to do something is half the battle. I have had a number of experiences of people choking for example and it can be very scary indeed.”

The feedback from the training was amazing with everyone feeling so much more confident about what they could do in an emergency.

Ross continued “ Getting people basic first aid training is so easy and it never ceases to amaze me that so few people in the UK are trained, yet everyone I speak to would welcome it. Perhaps we should adopt the system in other countries where the training is mandatory as part of learning to drive and passing your driving test. That way we might get over 90% of people with basic training whereas in this country it is under 10% – that’s just not good enough! My abiding memory will always be my friend’s wife thanking me for giving her husband back to her – now that was emotional !”