Win life saving equipment and training for your school
Local charity Welsh Hearts, Calonnau Cymru are holding a competition for primary and secondary school aged pupils to design a festive Christmas card. Pupils can draw, paint or photograph their entries. There will be three winners, one of which will receive a free defibrillator and CPR training for their school. Defibrillators are life saving pieces of equipment. In Wales, there are approximately 8000 sudden cardiac arrests outside hospital each year. It’s shocking that the survival rate is only 3% but where a defibrillator is used, the survival rate is 47%.
The winning designs will be printed into Christmas cards and sold to raise much needed funds for one of the charity’s causes, Jack’s Appeal. Every week in the UK 12 young people die suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition. On 12th February 2012 15-year-old Jack Thomas became one of those 12 young people. Jack was a fit and healthy young person who had represented Wales all across Europe on a number of occasions in Taekwondo. Jack’s parents set up the appeal in his memory and to help save the lives of other young people in Wales by providing defibrillators to as many secondary schools in Wales as possible starting with the Gwent and Rhymney Valley area.
Sharon Owen, Charity Director at Welsh Hearts said:
“To date Jack's Appeal has raised an amazing £37,484.1. The appeal has also funded a heart screening programme which is taking place across South Wales in secondary schools to detect heart abnormalities in young people to manage any underlying heart conditions that they may not know of. Welsh Hearts are also raising money to fund a further six heart screening sessions which will take place across Wales in 2016 for a wider age group of 14-35 year olds.”
Further information regarding the Christmas card competition, Jack’s Appeal and the Heart screening sessions can be found by visiting the Welsh Hearts website.
