Healthy Hearts – a pioneering Wigan Athletic Community Trust scheme which has trained more than 2,000 primary school children across Wigan in CPR – was recently launched for a second year at Ince CE Primary School by Wigan Athletic first team players Lee Evans and Reece James...
The duo joined coaches from the Community Trust and pupils in Year 5 to learn more about various life-saving skills and how to recognise a heart attack and a cardiac arrest.
Run in partnership with the North West Ambulance Service, the Trust worked with 40 schools as part of the project during the 2017/18 season, with the programme first launched by club legend Emmerson Boyce and Olympian Jenny Meadows at the DW Stadium.
The initiative aims to raise awareness of making healthy lifestyle choices and to increase the amount of young people trained in CPR to potentially decrease the number of cardiac arrest deaths.
Lee said: “Healthy Hearts is an unbelievable project and the Community Trust seem to be leading the way with their work in this field in primary schools across Wigan. It was great to be involved and the skills the pupils picked up will stay with them forever, so it’s just really beneficial for them.”
The project was also supported by fellow first team players Will Grigg and Michael Jacobs last year as they took part in activities with pupils at St Andrew’s Primary School.
Jillian Hyde, Head Teacher at Ince CE Primary School, said: “The children obviously enjoy playing and watching football so to have two Wigan Athletic players walking through their school doors to take part in a Healthy Hearts session with them has meant the absolute world.
She added: “The project is invaluable as it allows them at an early age to be able to not only look after themselves, but their friends, families and the wider community too should they ever need to.”
Please contact Wigan Athletic Community Trust’s Schools Services Manager Gareth Nolan on g.nolan@wiganathletic.com or call 01942 318090 for more information about Healthy Hearts.