Rotary club campaign aims to ‘stop the bleed’

Every year in the UK, around 19,000 people die after injury because of major bleeding.

If someone has an accident, is a victim of knife crime or becomes injured in a major incident – the single most preventable cause of death is bleeding.

Blackwood Rotary Club, together with its counterparts in Bargoed and Pontllanfraith, are hoping to change that with the start of a new local campaign.

The charitable organisation is fundraising to provide training kits to teach Year 7 pupils the basics in how to stop major bleeds.

It is working with first aid charity citizenAID to hopefully rollout training to comprehensive schools across Caerphilly County Borough with a team of volunteers.

Ian Pallister, Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery at Swansea University, is an ambassador for citizenAID and spoke at a recent meeting of the Rotary clubs about the importance of such training in saving lives.

He said: “There was a realisation that we needed to try and provide members of the general public with advice and skills to help in that gap in the chain of care, and a vacuum between injuries occurring and emergency services actually arriving. This was all borne out of the response to mass casualty and terrorist incidents.

“But it’s equally applicable if you’re the first on the scene as a good Samaritan at a road traffic collision.”

Teachings skills such as applying pressure to a wound, packing it, and using a makeshift tourniquet can mean the difference between life and death.

It costs a total £1,800 to pay for training kits for 12 schools, and if fundraising goes well, the Rotary clubs are also hoping to buy £45 ‘bleed kits’ for the community to be placed near defibrillators in case of an emergency.

Blackwood Rotary Club member Barry Jones has accepted the challenge of kicking-off fundraising by scaling the Principality Stadium, traversing it on a zip line before abseiling to the ground.

As well as fundraising, the club has enlisted former nurse the Rev Lisa Taylor, vicar in the Islwyn Ministry Area, as the lead trainer to go out to schools.

Trevor Morgan, chair of community services at Blackwood Rotary, is behind plans for the local campaign, which will culminate with citizenAID’s ‘Stop the Bleed Day’ on April 26 next year.

He said: “I saw the work of citizenAID on television and thought we could apply that as a project locally, bringing the three clubs together.”