Arrived early at the hotel to sus out where we were being located and discovered Joe already there (Magilligan trained!). The class participants arrived shortly afterwards, 11 in total, with only one absentee, (Finlay), through no fault of his own.

The course began promptly under the guidance of Peter from St. John Ambulance. The course was very interesting and informative, and we were taught how to spot, deal with and manage various injuries, strokes and the stopping of blood flow. We were also shown and practised between ourselves how to perform CPR manually and with the use of a defibrillator. During the latter however two “drunken weemen” (names withheld) wanted to advise us “how it was done”!! They were shown “how”, by being removed via an armlock by (name withheld) and the demonstration resumed.

After a short coffee/tea and shortcake intake, the class continued with how to deal with choking using backslaps and abdominal thrusts on both adults and infants.

To finish off we discussed various medical conditions and how to deal with them, and how to use an auto-injector on people with severe allergic conditions.

A thoroughly enjoyable and informative day and to finalize it all, a delicious main meal and dessert to top it off.

Many thanks to all those who attended, to those who organized it, to the staff and caterers at the Crowne Plaza and to Peter who guided and supervised us in a friendly and professional manner.

Finally, we all departed in various directions to our home abodes.

Joe & Kenny