Giving Back

A sudden cardiac is a life changing experience and sometimes when things have calmed down those affected by it feel the need to give something back.

This can take many forms and will be personal to each personal unique journey, but here are some suggestions should you feel the need to give something back.

Help your peers via SCA UK

One of the best and perhaps easist things you could do is to help others who find themselves in a similar situation to yourself.  Maybe you’ve found your new “normal” and life is liveable again, but o you remember what it was like in the early days? the uncertainty, maybe some anxiety for whether it will happen again, or were you just dazed and confused at what had happened and where your life was now going?  Well you can probably be sure that there are many others in our Facebook group going through very similar emotions and you can use your experience to help them just by contributing to posts via comments or likes, or by even posting your own .  If you’ve got more to say we’d love it if you wanted to submit an article to our blog and you can find some suggestions for articles here.

Raise Awareness

If you’re a survivor you probably know that you’re in a quite a unique club, and that the current survival rates aren’t that great.  It’s also quite likely that you didn’t know anything about a sudden cardiac arrest before you had one and that many others around you are equally unaware of this event.  Many, including the media confuse it with a heart attack and of course some people do have both, but it is worth raising awareness with your peers and event the local or national media if you can.  Meeting your savious and getting a picture and write-up in the press can be an easy way to get the message out there.

Learn CPR

Most survivors will have had CPR performed on them and it is an essential skill that everyone should have.  If your first experience of CPR was either receiving or giving it in a lide and death situation it may take awhile before you feel you are ready to learn it as skill in it’s own right.

There are various places you can take a course either online or locally to you, prices vary from free to up to £100 depending on the course content:

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Raise Funds

As Homer Simpson once said “Why do things always have to cost things?” and so raising some funds is always an excellent idea.  Currently SCA UK is run on a voluntary basis and if you would like to help us improve what we do please contact us as we can accept funds through SADS UK.

Community Defibrillators

A favourite of those wishing to give back is to raise funds for an AED to be placed into their local community.

SADS UK can provide AED’s and a secure cabinet at very competitive rates and as the charity closest to our cause it would be our recommendation if you want to get an AED.

It’s also worth noting that  if you have a vacant local red telephone box your AED can be housed for just £1!