Heart-hero Mark’s first-aid reward

Mark Barrow and his grandfather, whose life he saved.

FIRST-AIDERS were so impressed with Mark Barrow’s heroic efforts that they offered him free training courses.

The 14-year-old Chronicle paperboy leapt into action when his grandad Barry Garner, had a heart attack at home in Greenfield.

Without any prior training, Mark remained calm, called 999 and carried out CPR for 10-15 minutes until paramedics arrived.

Both Heartstart UK Oldham and Oldham Training College (OTC) were quick to offer the Saddleworth School pupil a free first-aid course to reward him for his excellent work.

The courses include recognising heart attack symptoms, CPR, recovery position, choking, bleeding and breakages.

Steve Neild of OTC thinks Mark acted brilliantly considering his age and the fact he had had any first-aid training before.

“After recent events, it is great to see young people getting recognised for doing something positive for a change,” he said.

“We would love to invite Mark and a couple of friends or family down to take part in our course for free as a reward.”

Colin Platt, a trainer at Heartstart UK Oldham — which is run by volunteers, said: “Here’s someone who wants to learn and we’d love to teach him. We’re always looking for people to come and learn on our courses and indeed, to become trainers themselves.

“On completion of the course, participants get certificates which would look great when applying for any job.”

Mark said: “It would be interesting to do a course as I’ve not had any training before.

“I just had to do what the ambulance service told me on the phone.

“It would be really helpful if I knew what to do if anything like this happened again, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Even his mum, Janet, said the incident had made her think about getting some training.

Yesterday Barry underwent a triple bypass operation at Manchester Royal Hospital.