AFTER Denmark footballer Christian Eriksen was resuscitated during this weekend’s Euro 2020 match with Finland, Heartstart Malvern is calling for more people to learn potentially life-saving skills.

The charity, which provides defibrillators and defibrillator training, is calling for more training to help save more lives.

Richard Vakis-Lowe, from Heartstart, said: “Christian Eriksen was extremely lucky to survive his cardiac arrest.

“The survival rate from a cardiac arrest is less than 10 per cent in the United Kingdom.

“What the events over the weekend have shown us is that with some one starting CPR very quickly and then using a defibrillator, people can survive a cardiac arrest.

“In places where people are trained in CPR and a defibrillator is readily available, the survival rate can be as high as 50 per cent.”

Heartstart Malvern has now provided free resuscitation training to more than 3,000 local people including school children and have installed 27 public access defibrillators in Malvern.

Mr Vakis-Lowe added: “We had to stop delivering our training at the start of the pandemic but hope to restart our training in the early autumn.

“Meanwhile we are encouraging people to visit our website www.heartstartmalvern.org.uk to watch our two short video clips on how to do CPR and use a defibrillator.

“This will take less than five minutes to do and could help you save a life.

“Heartstart Malvern is also encouraging people to know the location of their nearest defibrillator.

“In an emergency, seconds count and for every minute’s delay from someone collapsing to them receiving a shock from a defibrillator, their chance of survival will decrease by about 10% a minute.

“Therefore it is really important to know the location of your nearest defibrillator.”