Your chance to earn first aid "passport" at St John Ambulance open day this weekend

St John volunteers, from left: Sue Farmer, Michelle Hartley, Aimee Pearce, myself and Emily Sanderson

FIRST aid experts are running an open day this weekend to help the public pick up vital life-saving skills.

St John Ambulance’s Rotherham No.1 and Enzor unit are holding the event from 10am to 4pm on Sunday at their base in Down’s Row Rotherham.

The busy unit has adult volunteers who provide cover at Rotherham United FC, other sporting events, village fairs and events outside the District such as Tramlines in Sheffield.

They also have a very active Badger unit - volunteers aged five to 11 - and Cadet section - aged 11 to 17, where young people are taught age-appropriate first aid skills.

During the open event, volunteers will be demonstrating a range of basic life saving skills and visitors will be given a first aid ‘passport’ to fill in as they work their way round the displays.

There will be stalls with details of the heritage of the charity in Rotherham, as well as information about the St John Fellowship, which anyone over the age of 18 is welcome to join.

Outside the building, there will be an ambulance which people can explore and find out more about from crew members.

There will also be fundraising activities such as a tombola and refreshment and cake stalls.

Any funds raised during the day will be split between the local St John Fellowship and the ongoing training and equipping of first aid volunteers locally.

The unit has urgent vacancies for people who wish to enrol as Youth Leaders to help open up a second weekly training evening for the charity’s cadets.

Youth leader Michelle Hartley said: “Sunday promises to be a really fun day and we can’t wait to welcome people to the unit and teach visitors some essential first aid skills.

“We also really do need enthusiastic and committed adults to continue joining us as Youth Leaders.

“St John is a great charity to volunteer with and those who join us as part of this appeal will be teaching the next generation of first aiders how to save a life.

“With a waiting list at the moment of around 100 young people, all of whom want to join us and start learning life saving skills, there’s never been a better time to volunteer as a Youth Leader and help us add a second evening of teaching to our already busy programme of activities for our young volunteers.”

To find out more about St John Ambulance’s Youth offering, visit https://www.sja.org.uk/get-involved/young-people/.

For can informal chat about volunteering as a youth leader, contact Michelle at [email protected].