You never know when you could make a difference that could save a life.

I’d been on first aid courses years ago but had this nagging feeling that my knowledge may not be up to scratch so when I was offered a place on Triangle Training’s Emergency First Aid At Work course I jumped at the chance.

The trainer was Peter Juniper and a small group of us from different South West newspapers in the Tindle Group gathered to sharpen our skills.

Peter said: “We go through situations, go through what they call a primary survey.

“Then airway management, breathing checks, is the person breathing normally.

“If that's the case, then we put them in the recovery position.

“If someone's not breathing normally or we're not sure, then that's where unfortunately we'll have to start CPR and if we can get a defibrillator as quickly as possible, that can push up success rates enormously.

Also on the first aid at work course, we'll be looking at some medical conditions.

“For example, we'll be looking at seizures, epileptic seizures, blood loss and shock.

“Burns as well will be included in the syllabus too and also a little bit around accident reporting procedures also.

Peter went on to describe the importance of first aid: “ I think it's a life skill, basically.

“Even just a very short course can arm us with the information that we need.

“It is compulsory now in senior schools in England and Wales for children to learn first aid and that's going to push up our success rates.

On the continent, children have been learning basic life skills like this for quite a few years.

“We're in a catch up situation so our success rates will improve, I'm sure, simply because more people are learning about what to do.”