Lifesaver Gayle knew exactly what to do

Gayle Wiseman became a lifesaver after learning CPR.

Nationwide Building Society joined the British Heart Foundation’s Nation of Lifesavers campaign in August in a bid to create 35,000 potential lifesavers.

Gayle Wiseman (40), who has been manager of the Nationwide branch in Motherwell for 11 years, was spurred on to complete the BHF’s Call Push Rescue training session after her husband’s best friend died at the age of 25 following a failed heart transplant in 2003.

She put her new skills in to action on August 25 when a young man suffered a cardiac arrest right outside the branch.

However, thanks to Gayle performing CPR, he was taken to hospital and has now made a full recovery.

Gayle said: “It was just a normal day at work when my colleague ran into the branch to say a man had collapsed outside our front door.

“I rushed to the scene and that’s when I saw he wasn’t breathing. I went into autopilot and started CPR.

“After five minutes or so, but what seemed like hours, his chest started to rise and by the time a paramedic arrived, he was fully conscious.

“He couldn’t have been any older than 30 and when I went back to the branch, I was pleased but in complete shock.”

Gayle is now championing Restart a Heart Day – an annual initiative led by the Resuscitation Council (UK) and supported by the BHF and other organisations, which aims to improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

She said: “If I hadn’t been trained through Nationwide’s partnership with the BHF, I would have been part of the crowd just standing there.

“I’m now helping Nationwide make sure even more staff are trained in CPR, through the BHF’s Call Push Rescue kits, and we have so far turned 2,500 fellow colleagues into potential lifesavers.”

For more information on how you can help BHF create a Nation of Lifesavers visit bhf.org.uk/cpr.