Stop The Bleed courses to mark landmark day.
A series of potentially lifesaving training courses are being held today to coincide with National Stop the Bleed Day in the UK.
The nationwide initiative is dedicated to equipping individuals with essential skills to control life-threatening bleeding before emergency services arrive.
To coincide with the day, the Pink Punters paramedic-led training team is delivering a series of 30-minute Stop the Bleed courses across Milton Keynes. These sessions are designed for anyone from Year 7 upwards and focus on three critical lifesaving interventions for severe bleeding: applying direct pressure, wound packing, and tourniquet application.
These skills are vital, as severe bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death following trauma.
The initiative is being led by Joe McMahon, a paramedic and firefighter with nearly four decades of frontline experience in London, and now based at the Pink Punters venue in Milton Keynes.
Recognising the importance of immediate bystander intervention, Joe developed the Ready to Respond programme, initially as an in-house scheme to enhance the organisation’s Health & Safety measures in line with the newly enacted Martyn’s Law, and to proactively address the increasing risks from knife crime and terrorism in the UK.
The Ready to Respond programme, in partnership with citizenAID, offers accessible training and resources to individuals, families, communities, organisations, and businesses.
“We are proud to lead the city, but we need many hundreds of schemes to be set up,” said Joe. “A scheme can range from an individual with a small bleed kit to a multinational company or stadium that utilises the same basic measures to get as many of their staff or customers trained as possible.”
Wolverton and Greenleys Town Council have bought several public access Stop the Bleed Kits and AED defibrillators to be placed in secure cabinets at strategic locations throughout the town. Training will be provided to local residents, and the equipment will be available to save lives every day of the year.
To date, Pink Punters has helped distribute over 200 Stop the Bleed kits across Milton Keynes, each bearing the photo of Jay Fathers, a Milton Keynes teenager who lost his life to knife crime in 2021.
“If you’re interested in establishing a Ready to Respond scheme for yourself, your family, community, organisation, or business, please email:
contact@pinkpunters.com or visit www.readytorespond.co.uk for more information,” said Joe.
You can also download the free, award-winning citizenAID app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. This app provides clear, step-by-step guidance on how to respond to various emergencies, including life-threatening bleeding, and requires no registration or personal details.
