Cameron McFarlane runs CPR workshops at primary school

“I was here at Inverell Public School last year when we hit a landmark of 20,000 students since the programs been started,” he said.

“It’s grown bigger and better and it’s just pushing and pushing, and one day I’d like to see it in the curriculum of all schools.”

He said the youngsters responded well to the training and were asking good questions. 

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“We learned how to do CPR properly and when to do it and under what circumstances,” Chloe Donnelly said. 

Matt Reece said he would make sure he remembered to “do the 30 compressions and two puffs”.

Along with classmate Chloe Sharpley, the pair agreed they felt more confident about facing emergency situations. 

“A lot of kids haven’t been exposed to CPR. A lot have heard about it but don’t really know the protocol. What my job is is to simplify it, keep it all nice and neat for them, and then we have quizzes at the end of the session,” Mr McFarlane said. 

He said the local children’s answers to quizzes indicated that the information was sinking in.

As his program continues to grow, the Tamworth-based lifesaver is preparing to take his program to Vietnam in October, where he hopes to reach 2000 students and 60 students through eight days of training. 

He was thrilled to join with not for profit Hue Help, and was proud to bring the program created in our region to Vietnam. 

“We’re doing an orphanage as well and we’re leaving a cash donation at the orphanage when we leave. And Royal Life’s donating 20 mannequins, which they will take over and they will be left behind once we go through all the schools, to carry on with their CPR and for the teachers to teach them,” he said.