University scoops HeartSafe award

18 Oct 2013

The University has won the 2013 HeartSafe Tourism or Leisure Business of the Year award in recognition of its work installing AEDs (automated external defibrillators) across its cultural assets, which includes the Manchester Museum, Jodrell Bank, John Rylands Library and the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Staff members collected the award at a ceremony at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel in Manchester, hosted by the charity Hand on Heart, whose aim is to put defibrillators into schools all over the UK. 

The judges praised the University for its work to ensure staff and students are trained in basic life support and AED use and their programs to train the local community. 

Janet Makin, First Aid Co-ordinator, attended the event with colleagues from the Manchester Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery and John Rylands Library.  She said:  “We were delighted to represent the University at such an inspiring event. 

“The University had been shortlisted for two awards and we were thrilled to receive the Heart Safe Tourism or Leisure Business of the Year 2013 award on behalf of our colleagues.

“This will help us to further raise the profile, and promote the work that is continuing at the University, to increase the current provision of AEDs and the delivery of Basic Life Support training to staff, students and the local community.”

There are more than 20 AEDs at key locations around the campus. Providing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) with defibrillation increases the chanceof the casualty surviving the arrest. Less than 5 per cent of people survive with CPR alone but these odds are improved tenfold to 50 per cent with the prompt use of an AED and effective CPR.

If you’d like to find out more about AED or First Aid training, please contact Janet Makin, First Aid Co-ordinator, janet.makin@manchester.ac.uk or extension 58910. 

To find out where AEDs are located on campus, look for the green heart symbol on the Campus Map.