Day 163 to 180 – The First Aid Course

Last week I attended my three yearly First Aid refresher course as part of my respite carer’s accreditation. As with most courses I could not wait until it ended … same old, same old!!! …I thought.

A few days later I was at an event in London when a lady collapsed in the car park. She was surrounded by about five people who appeared to have the situation under control. I walked over to the group, probably just being nosey as usual, and noticed that women appeared to be unconscious and had a nasty cut to her head. The ‘First Aiders’ had her on her back, one was lifting her legs up, while another was trying to get water down her … this women was unconscious with a head wound!!

I asked the question of the group “Is anyone first aid trained here?” A stony silence then, “No, but are you?”

Well, I immediately got to work checking her breathing, putting her into the recovery position, ensuring an ambulance had been called and monitoring her condition; as I gave her some reassuring words as she was drifting in and out of consciousness.

It was a great feeling helping this lady, but I can't help but think I need to change my attitude towards First Aid refresher courses in the future ... :-)

Other opportunities to render aid over the past few weeks have included:

1 x Gave my tie to a friend … he said he liked it!
1 x Gave First Aid to a collapsed female
16 x Gave cash to a charity
8 x Gave a big smile and a hello to a stranger
103 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to another driver
9 x Picked up rubbish in the neighbourhood
3 x Wrote a letter of appreciation to someone
3 x Voluntary work within the Community
17 x Held the door open for someone
1 x Helped someone pick-up some mess they had made.
12 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to a pedestrian
2 x Voluntary work for Ipsos Access Panels
1 x Gave cash to a Big Issue seller
3 x Gave cash to a street beggar
1 x Treated a friend to lunch
2 x Cut neighbours lawn
3 x Put neighbours bin back after the bin men had been

Sub total: 186
Running total: 1737

Target: 3000+ in 12months

Commenced 30^thNovember 2011

Motivation for ‘’My Ten-a-day’

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “I made a difference for that

Day 153 to 162 – Trainspotting

Whilst travelling home from Birmingham on the train today I spotted a man and a woman both of whom had the looks and behaviours of having Down Syndrome. They appeared to be a ‘couple’ and sat there eating their lunch. She was as ‘cute as a button’ and he was very trendy with his designer stubble and long dark hair. Both were smartly dressed and sat in silence as they opened their sandwiches and their drinks; keeping themselves very much to themselves.

As the man opened his drink the bubbles shot out all over the table and he quickly screwed the cap back on and began to laugh. His beautiful companion joined in the laughter as they surveyed the mess that had been caused by his exploding fizzy drink. They both got some tissues and began cleaning up the mess. As the soggy tissues mounted up I offered to put them in the bin for them, for which he thanked me.

I then became part of the clean-up operation as they both wiped-up all the liquid from the table. Having achieved their objective I could see that the man’s hands were sticky and offered him a ‘wet-one’, for which he was grateful.

Once all clean and tidy they resumed eating their lunch together. They were obviously in love and obviously found the whole incident highly amusing.

It was a joy for me to witness this tender moment and an even greater joy to be of service to them.

Other opportunities I had to serve people this week included:

8 x Gave cash to a charity

1 x Gave a big smile and a hello to a stranger

78 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to another driver
1 x Replaced store’s merchandise that had fallen off the display
3 x Picked up rubbish in the neighbourhood

6 x Wrote a letter of appreciation to someone

3 x Voluntary work within the Community
4 x Held the door open for someone
1 x Helped someone pick-up some broken glass they had dropped.
4 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to a pedestrian
2 x Did some DIY for someone in need
4 x Voluntary work for Ipsos Access Panels

1 x Gave cash to a Big Issue seller

2 x Gave my place in a queue to someone

1 x Gave cash to a street beggar

1 x Replaced store’s merchandise that had fallen off the display
1 x Treated a friend to lunch
1 x Gave someone a written job reference
1 x Put neighbours bin back after the bin men had been

Sub total: 123

Running total: 1551

Target: 3000+ in 12 months

Commenced 30^th November 2011

Motivation for ‘’My Ten-a-day’

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “I made a difference for that one.”