THACKLEY AFC opened its club house doors over Christmas and invited in the community for a free training course on defibrillator use, CPR and rescue breathing.

The course, which was attended by officials of Thackley AFC and members of the local community, was delivered by Paul Macnamara of Ninety Plus.

It is the community aim of Ninety Plus is to install 300 Public Access Defibrillators nationwide within five years.

Macnamara said: “It was fantastic to see so many in the community come down to learn how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator. 

"We need to educate the public and show them that they don’t need to be afraid to use a defibrillator to save someone’s life. 

"Hopefully the government will be mandating the learning of these key skills in schools, sooner rather than later.” (New CPR mandates were set last week for 2020 in UK schools)

By using a defibrillator, the chances of survival go from six per cent to 90 per cent when used alongside effective CPR.

Defibrillators have been in the news after two incidents in 2018. The first was the heart attack and collapse of Glenn Hoddle in the BT Sport studio and then a 15-year-old footballer who had a heart attack playing for Stocksbridge Park Steels.

Luckily, in the case of Hoddle, a quick-thinking BT Sport employee knew how to use a defibrillator and he jumped into action to assist.

Then in the Stocksbridge game, the referee and parents knew how to use the defibrillator to help the stricken footballer.

Both Hoddle and the teenager survived.

Thackley AFC is one of three locations in Thackley where there is a defibrillator, the others being the public access defibrillators on the walls outside Thackley Cricket Club and Thackley Primary School.

Thackley AFC chairman Ben Oliver was keen to emphasise the benefits of the training received, saying: "At Thackley, we are lucky that the committee decided a few years ago to invest in a defibrillator.

"We are also lucky that the defibrillator will likely be in the hands of our match day physio, Joe Tate, in the event of an emergency, who is trained to use it.

"However, I was keen to ensure that the committee had also had an opportunity for some basic training in case the unthinkable happened.

"I recently met Paul at a networking event and he was kind enough to offer to put the event on for the committee, and was more than happy to open the invitation up to all of the community which was brilliant.

"Thackley really wants to be a club at the heart of the local community and initiatives such as this are exactly what we want to do away from match day activities.

"Everyone now feels a lot more confident should the unthinkable happen, while also hoping that we never have to use what we have learnt."