AT this month's public Heartstart course in Hereford held at Holmer Park Spa and Health Club, Herefordshire Heartstart volunteer instructors trained their 22,000 person. The certificate of attendance was awarded to Sharon Iddon by volunteers from the charity.

Herefordshire Heartstart have been teaching members of the public how to save a life at their two hour free Heartstart Courses since 1996. Over 1,000 people received Heartstart training over the last year in Herefordshire. This is another record for the charity.

Loraine Coleman says "This is a phenomenal number of people, particularly when you consider that the two hour Heartstart course is delivered by trained volunteer instructors."

Thousands more schoolchildren have also benefited through our schools project.

Throughout the evening the attendees learnt what to do if someone was unconscious, choking, bleeding seriously, having a heart attack, and how to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

We run courses across Herefordshire for various groups, other voluntary organisations, community groups, businesses and schools, as well as regular public courses, which means that more people can learn some basic first aid skills, which could potentially save a life.

We rely on free venues across the county to put on the courses and Holmer Park Spa and Health Club have kindly allow us to regularly use their room free of charge, meaning more people have learnt the skills. If you have a venue that we can use without charge, please get in touch.

For details of how to book a course for your group, to attend a public course or to offer help to the charity visit herefordshireheartstart.org or email herefordshireheartstart@btconnect.com