The inspiration for Hands on Health was born out of an incident in 2019, when I saved a man’s life (an extraordinarily kind, nice and generous man!). While driving through Dublin City and I saw that someone had collapsed on the footpath. After establishing that he was in cardiac arrest, I called 999. I performed intermittent CPR for over 24 minutes until an ambulance arrived. He was brought to a nearby hospital where he made a full recovery.

As a practicing nurse in ICU, with nearly 10 years of Emergency Department nursing, I am all too aware that in a cardiac arrest scenario, for every minute that goes by the chance of survival drops by 7-10%. 

According to the Irish Heart Foundation, if you are trained in CPR you are 10 times more likely to respond appropriately in an emergency. There are approximately 5000 cardiac arrests each year in Ireland, and 70% of these happen outside the hospital setting, usually in the home. It is universally accepted that timely and competent CPR has been shown to double or triple the chance of survival.

Following the 2019 incident, I went on to train as a Cardiac First Responder (community) and First Aid Responder (FAR) instructor. I am passionate about empowering others with the knowledge to make a difference if confronted with an emergency situation.