A long time ago, in a land far away; well, 1980 in Balclutha to be precise, I had the chance to do a first aid course at school. 

There was a fair bit of shenanigans went on, because the chance arose due to the need to fill in the requisite number of days at school following being accredited UE, but some of it must have stuck.

Four years later I was walking on evening in Albany Street in Dunedin when a van load of students T-boned a taxi right in front of me. 

Several of the nine students in the van can’t have been wearing seat belts because they went through the windscreens and landed on the road. It was a hellish, indescribable scene.

Never have I been so glad of some training in my life. I recall vividly one student who I was next to with a young woman. We could see she had landed face first and was struggling to breath. 

We had a choice, watch her drown on her own blood or turn her into the recovery position, risking that she had neck damage. We were halfway through very carefully turning her when an idiot ran over and physically tried to push us away due to that risk of a neck injury, all while we were incredibly carefully holding her head while allowing her breathe.

It was horrific and the thing that floored me the most was that the paper the next day reported those in hospital had “moderate” injuries. I sure as hell never want to see serious ones.

So the point of this story? At numerous places around Central, there are defib devices (you can find the locations on The Central App). They are relatively simple to use, but given someone’s life is going to depend on you getting it right if you are ever first at the scene, how good would a practice be?

On Sunday 31 July, the fine folk at the Clyde Fire Brigade will be doing hands-on demonstrations between 10 and 2 as part of an open day. 

This is too good an opportunity to miss, because you just never know when you are going to need this experience. There’s no cost, but donations will be gladly taken toward the Skytower firefighters Challenge supporting the Blood and Leukaemia Foundation of New Zealand.

It would be great to see you there.