Julie has urged Ministers to create a generation of young life-savers by teaching Emergency Life Support skills in schools.

After meeting representatives of the British Heart Foundation, Julie called for a debate to urge Ministers to adopt life-saving skills to be part of part of the national curriculum.

Introducing the parliamentary debate, Julie argued that Ministers had a chance to act to save thousands of lives. Outlining her argument she stated “You know how it is – someone collapses or has a road traffic accident and we all stand around in a circle, waiting for someone else to act, usually too frightened to intervene. 

Now imagine a situation where every school leaver could save a life”.

Julie pointed to the local example of 15 year old Patrick Horrock who had a heart attack in Hindley Leisure Centre last week. She told MPs “a member of staff performed CPR and another used a defibrillator to restart his heart.  Patrick is alive and well because people knew what to do and had the tools available to do it”.

During her speech, Julie mentioned examples of children who had saved lives whilst adults did not know how to react. She argued that life-saving skills were as important as learning times tables and how learning ELS instilled confidence and a sense of citizenship.

Finishing the debate, Julie stated “This Government could go down in history for saving people’s lives. I urge them to do so”.

Education Minister Tim Loughton accepted the importance of learning ELS but stopped short of introducing it into the curriculum. Undeterred, Julie has urged him to look at other options of encouraging such skills in society, such as a compulsory part of the driving test.

Locally, Ms Hilling has attracted support from Bolton Fire Service for her campaign. They are already Heartstart tutors and are delivering classes to adults and young people in the firestation. Ms Hilling is working with Bolton Fire Service and the British Heart Foundation to get ELS taught in as many schools throughout her constituency as possible. 

Residents can sign the petition and find more information about the campaign at www.bhf.org.uk/ELS.

Read Julie's full speech here.