FARNHAM Scouts have been busy strengthening their Emergency (First) Aid skills as they work towards their level three staged Scouting award.

Enabled by a grant from Wood PLC and in collaboration with St John Ambulance, the 5th Farnham (Bourne) Scouts performed Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) drills and used Automated External Defibrillator (AED) simulators.

They also practised skills associated with burns, bleeding and breakages so that they can provide assistance to others, not only in their day-to-day community life, but also when cooking, camping and hiking around the UK as part of their adventurous activities programme.

St John Ambulance trainer Sally Nelson has been putting each of the participants through their paces, along with Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) specialist, Victoria Bruce, and her fellow scout leaders Ed Hill, Mark Ousey, Eric Goulding, Dominic Getting and Angela Cowdry.

The certified training has been enabled through a community engagement grant from engineering company Wood PLC, demonstrating the value that these donations make to communities both in the UK and overseas.

As part of a follow up activity to the event, the Scouts also carried out an AED search around Farnham.

This involved looking for both published, publicly accessible defibrillators and more discreet, privately held heart defibrillators to ensure they know precisely where the equipment is located.