THE Heartstart Farnham Lions team is pleased to announce that it has now achieved the training in Emergency Life Support skills, of more than 600 members of the community, having made an excellent start to the new year.

The team of volunteers goes from strength to strength and yet more instructors are expected to qualify before the end of this quarter, they just need the community to keep coming to their classes.

Heartstart, an initiative of the British Heart Foundation, is aimed at enabling ordinary people to be able to provide life-saving aid to a loved one, friend or even a stranger on the street, in the case of an emergency.

Farnham Lions Club is driving this initiative forward, which together with the club’s involvement in installing publicly accessible defibrillators (PADs) around the town (eight to date), should make it one of the most survivable, non–hospital, environments in the country in which to have a heart attack or cardiac arrest.

For those wanting to join the growing number of people in the community who can now confidently approach and help a casualty, who may well be in danger of swift and premature death, can by booking into one of their remaining classes before the summer break.

These classes will be taking place on April 13 and 27, May 18 and 25 and June 1, 15 and 29. There will then be a break until September, with further class dates being announced around mid August.

All classes take place at the St John Ambulance Hall, near Waitrose, in Farnham on Wednesday evenings from 7pm.

Each class, which lasts just over two hours, delivers the whole course. They are free, although donations towards expenses are welcome should they be offered.

For more invormation visit the website www.heartstartfarnhamlions.co.uk, or email [email protected] for further information and to reserve a place.