Our speaker Dave McClure, a volunteer at the Walton Lea Partnership, told us about the work they do with Adults with Learning Disabilities in the beautiful Walled Garden adjacent to Walton Gardens. The learners gain skills and accreditation in a variety of activities including Gardening, Upcycling furniture, bike repairs, hospitality and Arts and Crafts.
Dave’s specialism is teaching learners and the public about resuscitation and the use of a defibrillator. It was a bonus that he shared this training with us. He brought along a number of Manikins and we all had the opportunity to learn what to do if we came across a person who is ‘unresponsive’, how to apply resuscitation and how easy it is to use a defibrillator. Now, instead of thinking this is a complicated and scary process, we learnt that, as Dave said, doing ‘something’ has to be better than doing nothing. We won’t do any harm worse than just standing by and watching somebody die.
One of our newer members, a paramedic, reminded us that we can look at what Dave was teaching us online at on the British Heart Foundation website on https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/learn-cpr-in-15-minutes
After our refreshment break Pat shared some memories of the August outing to Dunham Cider Farm. The competition for ‘An upcycled item’ was won by Pam with her Teddy Bear made from mementos of her life and we held the raffle.
Our next meeting on 3rd Oct is Member’s Night – where the committee take a break and a group of members plan and run the meeting – the competition is ‘A Childhood Toy’.