THE Welsh Ambulance Service is celebrating its annual Shoctober campaign with a brand-new animation for children.

The month-long Shoctober campaign, which runs every October, is designed to educate and inform primary school pupils about correct use of 999 services and demonstrate life-saving Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for when someone is in cardiac arrest.

Normally, the Trust’s Patient Experience and Community Involvement (PECI) Team would visit schools up and down the country to host sessions face-to-face, but with the Covid-19 pandemic still underway, it has had to think differently about its approach and has come up with an educational animated film.

Fiona Maclean, PECI team Manager said: “The animation features sisters Catrin and Abi who learn about what is a real emergency and what is not through an online quiz which is ideal for Abi as she is deaf.

“They then move on to awareness of CPR and the recommendations surrounding Covid-19 and how to perform CPR when someone is in cardiac arrest.

“We’re unable to go into the schools this year, but with proper use of emergency services more important than ever, we’ve teamed up with our partners at the Centre for Sign, Sight & Sound to produce an informative animated film that can be shown in all schools.

“We are now delighted to be able to offer English, Welsh and in a first for us, a British Sign Language version of the special animation for deaf and hard of hearing children.”

Greg Lloyd, the Trust’s Head of Clinical Services, said: “Every second counts when someone suffers an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

“Research shows a patient’s chance of survival falls by 10% for every minute that passes without the intervention of CPR.

“Teaching children at a young age the procedure for responding in an emergency and building the confidence within them to perform resuscitation when needed is vital as cardiac arrest does not discriminate and can occur anytime.”

Fiona added: “Schools will be hearing off us very soon so that they may show and have the vital discussions around the film during Shoctober.”

The animation will be hosted on the Welsh Ambulance Service website and on their dedicated young people’s page ‘The Room’ as well as promoted across its social media channels.

Follow the Trust on Facebook and Twitter for more on the campaign.