This is how Safe + Sound began …

Around the time I was expecting my first child, three of my friends with young babies had to deal with a parent’s worst nightmare: their babies stopped breathing. Happily, due to the swift action of their parents, all three babies survived! But the story could have been very different. With my own baby due in a couple of months, this was a major wake-up call for me. I realized how important it is to have first aid training and what a great responsibility it is to care for another person.

When our son was five years old he choked on a candy, stopped breathing and nearly died. I was able to save his life using skills I learned during my Red Cross training. The day after that incident, a friend told me that a five year old girl in her neighborhood had just died after choking on a piece of apple. Sadly, the little girl’s mother did not have the necessary training to save her daughter’s life.

Two similar incidents — two very different outcomes.

First aid is easy to learn — anyone can do it. A first aid course is inexpensive, only takes a few hours of your time and it may well be the best investment you will ever make. In life-threatening emergency situations like choking, seconds really do count. Without oxygen the heart stops beating in 4-6 minutes. The average time it takes for an ambulance to arrive is 10 minutes. We all need to be prepared to react quickly and effectively in order to save a person’s life.

Don’t wait until it is too late. Register for a course and empower yourself with life saving skills. After all, what is more precious than a life?

Gill McCulloch