Winnipeg CPR course teaches life-saving skills, free of charge

Not all relays involve sprinting down a track as part of a team some promote ways to save lives.

The Community of Heroeseventat The Forks Sundaygave members of the public a chance to learn how to perform the CPR emergency procedure, free of charge.

Officials with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and the Heart and Stroke Foundation led Winnipeggers through four hours of relay training. Participants of all agestook turns doing chest compressions ontraining dummies.

LorettaOliver, a volunteer with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, said she hopes everyone who took part came away with a few life-saving skills.

"This is important, because what we do can save a life," Oliver said. "Winnipeg FireParamedic Service tells us that they can be ...at our place in [four minutes], but a lot can happen in that fourminutes. So the sooner we start CPR, the better."

CPR can double a person's chance of survival, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.