Four Galway schools have been acknowledged with awards for training their students in the lifesaving CPR skills.

Colaiste Mhuire, Ballygar; St Raphael’s College, Loughrea, Gort Community School and St Cuan’s College, Castleblakeney, all received CPR 4 Schools awards to recognise schools, teachers and students for remarkable efforts in cardiopulmonary resuscitation promotion and training.

They were presented recently as part of the Irish Heart Foundation’s national CPR 4 Schools programme, in which 86% of post-primary schools in Ireland are now trained.

The charity is creating a generation of life savers by training post-primary school students around the country to perform CPR and respond in a cardiac emergency, use an AED (defibrillator) and respond when someone is choking.

“We are delighted to award Colaiste Mhuire, St Raphael’s College, Gort Community School, and St Cuan’s College their CPR 4 Schools Award in recognition of their dedication in providing lifesaving CPR training to their students and staff,” said Katherine Scott, Acting Children and Young People Programme Manager with the Irish Heart Foundation.

“Over 70% of cardiac arrests happen in a domestic setting. We know schools are an ideal place to educate young people in CPR and reduce the incidences of death from cardiac arrest.

“All schools have done tremendous work in creating awareness and taking the fear out of lifesaving.

“CPR is a lifesaving skill that everyone can learn, and this programme is available to every post primary school in Ireland, equipping young people with the skills and confidence to perform it.

“We would like to train more post-primary schools and are encouraging teachers to attend our free training courses,” she added.

So far, 2,499 teachers in 627 post-primary schools around the country have taken part in the CPR 4 Schools programme and learned how to deliver CPR, giving the programme a reach of over 350,000 post-primary students.

All post-primary school teachers are encouraged to attend the free training. The CPR 4 Schools programme is easy to run, is designed to embed within the school curriculum and takes one hour to train a class.

Post-primary school teachers interested in attending can register by emailing schools@irishheart.ie.