South Shields Volunteer Lifeguard Club bids for funding to help run lifesaving programme

South Shields Volunteer lifeguards are hoping for your votes in funding bid

Tesco Bags of Help initiative, in conjunction with Groundwork, sees grants of up to £4,000 dished out to groups supporting local people.

The cash is raised through the sale of carrier bags - with shoppers having the final say as to who should receive the cash.

South Shields Volunteer Lifeguard Club are hoping a funding bid will help them buy new manikins

The group is one of three on the shortlist with its project to deliver the Royal Life Saving Society’s Save a Life workshops. If successful, the grant will be used to buy new manikins needed to run the free sessions.

Gillian Wilkinson, section leader of SSVLG said “Every year in the UK over 30,000 cardiac arrests occur out of hospital. That’s 30,000 opportunities to help save a life.

“It is proven that 77% of people in the UK either don’t know or are not sure on how to perform CPR and statistics prove that less than 1 in 10 people who have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital survive.

“The Save a Life program would allow us to work with people from our own community and offer free training in how to save a life.

“The overall aim of the project is to give people the skills to help those in need in time of an emergency.”

Customers have until the end of February to cast their vote using tokens given at check-outs each time they shop.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them.

“The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area.

“We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers.

“It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see these come to life.”

To nominate a project or organisation visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.