We do wonder sometimes, if what we are doing is having an effect, these testimonials tell us YES, WE ARE!
"“Joanne & Dan, I wanted to let you know today will be a day I will not forget.....I came on your course only a couple of weeks ago in Astley as I have a 17month old little boy & am 7 months pregnant. After a dog walk I found myself the first on the scene of a cardiac arrest and the only first aid trained person. The gentleman had no pulse or any signs of life. If it hadn't been for your course I would have been helpless and there was no one else there. All the videos you showed helped so much in terms of expecting to see certain body reflex’s and the role playing - I did as we had on the course and said I'm a first aider and people backed off and listened. It was about 5-10 mins and the ambulance arrived & used the defib, I carried on CPR and amazingly he started breathing and his heart re started!! To be able to help someone feels amazing. I never thought I would have to use what you taught me but so grateful to have been there. Your course material provided so much information that I had the confidence (although I didn't feel it at the time!) to help. Thank you, and to know someone out there has their dad, brother or friend is amazing!!! Thank you x “
“Hi there. I would just like to say thankyou for the post you did about meningitis symptoms. My 4 month old girl had been poorly for a week and the day you posted that was the day she was rushed to hospital and after extracting fluid from her spine was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. She is stable but will be a long road to recovery. If i hadn’t had read your post that day the outcome could have been just awful. Keep up the good work. I can’t thank you enough. We have an angel looking over our little girl. Please feel free to share this but please block out my name. Thank you again. Love to you and your family and of course your beautiful millie ♡” “Hi Jo and Dan. I just wanted to let you both know Eva has been discharged from Hospital after beating menigacoccol bacterial meningitis which I only acted upon because of what you posted that day. It’s been a long 5 weeks but its over. I hope that this news, along with the daily stories you get from other parents may bring you some peace and the strength to get through another day. I will be planning some fundraisers in 2014 and 50% of what is raised I shall donate to Millie’s Trust and the other half to Meningitis UK. I’m confident in saying my daughter would not be with us if it wasn’t for you. From the bottom of my heart... thankyou. Just thank you. “
“I attended the First Aid for Families course last Tuesday in Chertsey and I wanted to contact you to firstly say thank you for an extremely informative day. Secondly I remember you saying that you had been contacted by previous attenders who had, subsequent to the course, needed to put their first aid knowledge into practice. Yesterday I became one of those.... I was happily weeding my front garden when my neighbours came running towards me shouting that their 15month old was fitting and that she had a temperature; I took the little girl into my house and lay on the floor to quickly asses her, she was clearly having a febrile convulsion and was extremely hot so I immediately stripped her baby gro off, quickly assessed her and put her in the recovery position as she was breathing. The situation very quickly changed as I felt that she was then having trouble with her airway, I asked her parents to call an ambulance and ask for a paramedic and asked them if she had had anything in her mouth when she had started fitting. They said that she hadn't but I felt that something was occluding her airway, the fit stopped but she was turning blue so I started to give her back slaps and chest compressions (x2 rounds over my knees) and a lot of fluid came out of her mouth and nose, she was completely floppy, had stopped breathing and was blue and white all over, I gave her 4 or 5 rescue breaths and she immediately started to pink up and then started to breathe by herself. When the paramedic arrived she was in the recovery position and was starting to grimace although not moving by herself. After a short stay in hospital I am very happy to say that she is now home with a diagnosis of tonsillitis but apart from that is perfectly fine. It took 10 mins for the paramedic to arrive so I am so very grateful for the training you gave me last week. As a midwife I have experience resuscitating neonates but your training gave me extra confidence to deal with a febrile convulsion, choking and resuscitation in a toddler! I can't thank you enough!”"