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Just because Fabrice Muamba has hung up his boots doesn't mean he's retiring from public life. Yesterday the man himself delivered a petition with 100,000 signatures, demanding that CPR and other emergency life saving skills be a mandatory part of the national curriculum. Muamba was working with the British Heart Foundation. The BHF is a charity dedicated to the research, awareness, and care of heart diseases.
Currently it is optional whether or not schools teach CPR to their students, but Fab wants to change that. He said,
"Every year thousands of men, women and children witness someone having a cardiac arrest. They see someone - a friend, family member, or a complete stranger - collapse with little chance of survival without prompt CPR and a defibrillator. Sadly, not enough of those bystanders step in and help because they don't know life-saving skills, including vital CPR.
"But decision-makers across the UK have the power to fill our streets and homes with more life-savers and improve our terrible cardiac arrest survival rates by making sure all young people learn life-saving skills at school. It would create hundreds of thousands of new life-savers every single year.
"It only takes two hours to learn these skills, repeated each school year, but in return the next generation will be given a lifetime of confidence to help in a medical emergency."
This is a subject close to Muamba's heart (forgive me) for obvious reasons. After his own cardiac arrest, it's fantastic that he's using his high profile to campaign for worthy causes, such as educating future generations in life saving techniques. I'm sure this is only the start of Fabrice's work in this area.