A Fife-raised politician has called for first aid training to be introduced into Scottish schools after the vital skills saved his daughters life last year.
Edinburgh Western MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said “muscle memory” was ignited when his daughter Darcy, then four, choked on a Euro 50c piece as he prepared for a night out.
The 42-year-old, from St Andrews, used first aid training he learned at the age of 16 to save his daughter’s life in May.
He turned the tot upside down and slapped her back until she was sick and could gasp for breath.
Without his intervention, paramedics said Darcy’s condition could have been a lot worse.
He said: “When my four-year-old daughter choked on a coin and stopped breathing, a half remembered first aid course I did 25 years ago snapped back into my mind and I was able to resuscitate her.”
Pictures of Darcy’s X-ray and the recovered coin were posted online by Mr Cole-Hamilton, who urged parents to get first-aid training.
Since then, he has been advocating for more first aid training to be offered to the public.
He has held meetings with Scottish first aid charities and is joining the campaign for the inclusion of first aid education to be adopted as a nationally set statutory requirement for schools.
Backing The Courier’s First Aid Kids campaign, Mr Cole-Hamilton said he would have been more likely to panic if he was not first aid trained.
He said: “So many people have told me since that they wouldn’t have known what to do.
“That lack of public knowledge prompted me to run a series of training courses in my constituency and bring national first aid charities together to press government for a national first aid strategy.
“To my mind the most important thing we can do to increase knowledge of first aid is to get it into the curriculum.
“I learned first aid whilst learning to dive when I was 16 and it has stayed with me.
“Young people soak up information and even if it’s just the basics, on how to keep someone’s heart going or how to stop them choking, it could make all the difference.”
