THE Evening Times campaign to ensure EVERY Scots pupil leaves school a CPR life-saver has reached every city in Scotland.

A motion calling for every pupil to be trained in the emergency first aid skill was unanimously approved yesterday by Edinburgh City Council, which is expected to put pressure on schools to commit to a roll-out of lessons.

The motion was put forward by SNP Councillor Alison Dickie, who said it would help address a ‘health inequality’ which places people living in the most deprived areas at double the risk of suffering a cardiac arrest than those from affluent areas.

Conservative councillor Susan Webber, spoke in support of the motion, telling how a pupil had performed CPR days after being trained in school.

A total of 12 local authorities have now backed our Scotland’s Got Heart Campaign, following the lead of Glasgow City Council. West Lothian Council became the 11th to sign up earlier this week.

Read more: Only 43% of Scots would feel confident giving CPR 

British Heart Foundation Scotland has pledged to equip every secondary school in Scotland with the kits to train pupils.

Councillor Alison Dickie said: “Someone living in an area of deprivation is twice as likely to experience a cardiac arrest that someone living in an affluent area.

“This CPR training is one tool to help prevent one of our fellow human beings losing their lives as a result of this inequality.”

British Heart Foundation Scotland has pledged to equip every secondary school in the country with training kits.

Meanwhile, a woman campaigning for public access defibrillators told MSPs she is doing so in memory of her 10-year-old son.

Kathleen Orr began calling for more public places to have the life-saving equipment after her son, Jayden, suffered a cardiac arrest while ice skating.

Read more: Scots dad survives 15 cardiac arrests in three hours 

The keen skater, from Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, was training for the British Championships when he died on August 4 last year.

Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee on her petition calling for more buildings to have public access defibrillators installed, she said: “This was something I wanted to do in memory of my son.

“While doing his normal skate routine he collapsed on the ice. This is when he never got back up again and this is when my world fell apart.”

She said her husband carried him to the first aid room where she believes there was a defibrillator but it was not used as the staff working were not fully trained and were “scared of it”.

Mrs Orr added: “I am now Jayden’s voice and I will be the voice of other families that have lost their loved ones that have passed away but they could have been saved if there was defibrillator registered and out there in the public for use.”

Her petition calls for the Scottish Government to introduce a requirement for all new buildings, and those renovated or re-purposed, to have a public access defibrillator fitted to the outside.

Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Stuart McMillan told the committee he hopes to set up a coherent strategy on defibrillators in Inverclyde which can be rolled out across the country.

He stressed the importance of registering the devices, saying: “If they are not registered the ambulance service cannot direct someone to go and get it to use to try and save a life.”