Louth & Horncastle MP invites LIVES to Parliament

Horncastle-based emergency responder charity LIVES visited the Houses of Parliament this week to discuss its Community Strategy for reducing fatal cardiac arrests in the county.

MP for Louth & Horncastle, Victoria Atkins, hosted the visit to share the LIVES Community Strategy – based around maximising people’s chances of surviving a cardiac arrest – with Members of Parliament from Lincolnshire.

For every minute that your heart is stopped, your chance of survival decreases by ten percent. So, if someone is nearby and able to confidently administer bystander CPR it can and has meant the difference of life or death.

LIVES mission is to equip communities with the skills and confidence they need to make a difference during these emergencies.

To do this they want to develop a universal schools programme for providing school children with first aid training and bystander training for members of the community.

The visit included a presentation from Nikki Cooke, LIVES chief executive and a demonstration on how to administer bystander CPR by Chris Cole, Director of Operations.

The pair also took questions from MPs and other representatives alongside Andrew Blackwood, the LIVES Director of Relationships.

Ms Atkins said of the visit: “It was fantastic to invite our incredible emergency responder charity LIVES to Parliament to meet Lincolnshire MPs.

“LIVES do phenomenal work providing lifesaving emergency care in Lincolnshire and I am thrilled to be supporting their Community Strategy to expand this further.

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to Nikki Cooke, Chris Cole and Andrew Blackwood from the LIVES team for coming to visit us in Parliament and sharing such important information and to fellow Members of Parliament who

came and who support LIVES vital work.”

The meeting was organised following Ms Atkins visiting the charity at their Horncastle base earlier in the year, where she was shown one of the charity’s lifesaving Critical Care Cars which allow Critical Care Doctors and Critical Care Paramedics to respond on the road in serious medical emergencies when there isn’t time to reach the nearest trauma centre.

Nikki Cooke, LIVES Chief Executive, said: “Saving lives in a medical emergency is LIVES core mission.

"Our community strategy is founded in sharing our knowledge with the people of Lincolnshire so that they’re skilled and confident to step forward to help others during those first few minutes of a life-threatening emergency like a cardiac arrest. We are very grateful to our Lincolnshire MPs for their support in raising awareness of this essential work.”