A SERIES of events across Somerset this month will teach people how to restart a heart.

St John Ambulance volunteers will be offering advice and training in Street, Highbridge and Ilton, in a bid to help people save lives, part of the 2019 Restart A Heart campaign.

At the free sessions, people can learn how to help someone who has gone into cardiac arrest, via practical information on how to deliver cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and deliver shocks to the heart with a defibrillator.

Upcoming events in Somerset include:

* United Reform Church, High Street, Street – Saturday October 19 from 10am to 4pm.

* St John Ambulance HQ, Bank Street, Highbridge – Monday October 21 from 7.30pm to 8.30pm

* Ilton Village Hall – Wednesday October 23, from 7pm.

Details of many more locations across the South West are available online at www.sja.org.uk/restartaheart.

"Currently, fewer than one in 10 people in the UK survives a cardiac arrest out of hospital and St John Ambulance and its Restart a Heart partners want to change that," said a St John Ambulance spokesperson.

"Chances of survival double when someone gives immediate CPR and significantly increase further when a defibrillator is used.

"Working with the Resuscitation Council and other partners, St John Ambulance’s first aid demonstrations will contribute to an ambition of teaching as many people as possible these skills in October."