LEEDS UNITED and Southampton have teamed up on the eve of their Championship play-off final at Wembley to call on football fans across the UK to join them in backing the ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign.
Ahead of the winner-takes-all showdown at Wembley stadium on Sunday, Leeds’ full-back Junior Firpo and Southampton’s Ryan Manning took time out from their preparation for Sunday’s showdown to learn the life-saving CPR skill for themselves.
New figures revealed that since being launched by a star-studded ‘Re-Starting 11’ of footballers and local heroes on May 1, the campaign has so far inspired more than 30,000 people to learn CPR with the BHF’s online RevivR tool.
And with just one game to go, the flurry of 37 goals in this year’s Sky Bet Play-Offs means that Sky Bet has pledged £370,000 to support the BHF’s vital work. Sky Bet wants to raise up to £3m over the course of the 13-month campaign.
Firpo who learnt CPR this week at Elland Road said: “Learning CPR has been a genuinely eye-opening experience. I had no idea how simple and easy it is to do – and it’s a skill that can save someone’s life.
The Leeds United fans are simply incredible, they’ve stepped up and supported us every step of the way this season. I’d love them to show their support in a different way by backing this campaign and learning CPR themselves.”
The Championship play-off final is a poignant moment to call on fans to get behind the campaign, as it marks a year since Luton Town’s Tom Lockyer first collapsed due to an undiagnosed heart condition in last year’s Wembley tie against Coventry City.
Leeds manager, Daniel Farke, added: “Tom’s collapse was a sudden and shocking reminder that heart conditions can affect us all, even the fittest of football players.
“If all football fans were to spend just 15 minutes learning CPR it could make all the difference. What’s clear from Tom’s experience and the experience of thousands of people every year is that CPR saves lives. That’s why I’d urge the whole football community to come together and learn this potentially lifesaving skill.”
Saints star Ryan Manning said: “If you are ever in a situation where someone has a cardiac arrest that’s when the CPR training will kick in. My advice to anyone is just go and do it, search RevivR and you can learn CPR in 15 minutes. At the end of the day, CPR is a skill that you are much better off knowing than not knowing. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use it but if someone near you collapsed, you’d be so glad you knew how to help.”
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