FEWER people would die from a heart attack if there were more people with skills to save them.

Herefordshire Heartstart says the majority of heart attack casualties would still be alive today if others around them had basic life support skills.

The organisation has a great record in spreading the message and training people in the county to be life-savers.

Now, with the help of funding from Herefordshire Primary Care Trust it is concentrating on two important areas of work.

First, it wants to operate through GP surgeries by teaching families of patients most at risk of heart attack how to deal with the situation and secondly through training young children in schools how to do it.

But Heartstart spokeswoman Eleanor Drinkwater says more volunteer instructors are urgently needed if the two projects are to succeed. She is looking for people with just a little time on their hands willing to do something really worthwhile.

Basic essentials are time during the day, your own transport and the confidence to be able to stand up in front of a class of 30.

Volunteer instructors are taught initially by the resuscitation training officer at Hereford County Hospital and are then coached by volunteer instructors.

Heartstart believes it important to create a generation of young people with basic life support skills. Anyone keen to help and join a volunteer instructor course should ring Eleanor Drinkwater on 01432 760990 .