What To Do If Your Child Chokes

Would you have the life saving skills to deal with the following emergency situation if your child was choking?

Popcorn from St John Ambulance is a new interactive film campaign which aims to highlight that first aid can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved - www.sja.org.uk/popcorn.

The film is set in a packed cinema, and begins as a fictional advert featuring a happy family enjoying popcorn. The tone changes as one of the children starts choking and the mother, not knowing what to do, turns to the unsuspecting cinema audience for help. An actress disguised as an audience member, suddenly stands up and shouts that she knows what to do while running up to the front of the cinema. The woman disappears behind the screen before appearing within the advert and using first aid to save the young girl's life. She then reappears in the cinema while the advert plays out with a message explaining how viewers can receive a free pocket first aid guide. It was screened at Cineworld Cinema in Haymarket, London last week, and was developed in response to up to 150,000 people dying each year in situations where first aid might have given them a chance to live. The charity is urging more people to equip themselves with life saving skills.

Here are a few quotes about the campaign:

'First aid saves lives but our research has found that most of us wouldn't know what to do if confronted with a common emergency, like choking. We wanted to devise a dramatic simulation which would make people take notice of the issue, and press them to get life saving knowledge. Too many lives are being lost when they could be saved, this is unacceptable and as the nation's leading first aid charity we are determined to equip people to be the difference'
Sue Killen, CEO at St John Ambulance

'My reaction was one of great shock and I empathised so much with the increasing panic on screen. I was completely in tears. It was extraordinary to see the actress come down the stairs and appear on film. It made me think that I might well take a first aid course. It was the complete sense of impending doom - that this could turn out to be a real disaster. It could well not have had a happy ending. The whole audience went very quiet and stopped munching their popcorn. They were completely transfixed. It's a very powerful message.' Jan Wright from Chiswick
Everyone can get a free pocket sized guide by texting SAVE to 82727

or visiting the St John Ambulance website for more information on the campaign www.sja.org.uk/popcorn.

There's also advice you can get on your iPhone with the St John Ambulance first aid app, available through iTunes.



NOTE: The health section of Parenting.co.uk is not to be used as a substitute for your GP; if your child is ill then seek the advice of a qualified doctor or other health professional without delay.

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