Harrow Way Community School is continuing with its firm emphasis on first aid training with a number of Year 10 students recently taking part in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance ‘LifeLines’ challenge.

The project, split into four stages, includes a first aid HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) workshop, awareness raising, fundraising and a visit to the helicopter’s airbase at Thruxton to meet the Critical Care Team.

Harrow Way’s Site and Facilities Manager, Steve Badby, who delivers all of the school’s first aid training commented: “Having the LifeLines Ambassador introduce the students to the work of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance gave them an insight into the extreme side of first aid training. Not only did they get to use some of the equipment the crew have, they also experienced the practicalities of keeping the helicopter up in the air having to calculate the pay load when crewed, how much fuel it would need and the time to get to an incident. It was a very inspiring session.”

Having successfully completed the first to parts of the challenge, the students are now working on their fundraising initiative before they get to see the visits the team’s base at Thruxton.