Mills and Pratley swap the training pitch for the classroom to help teach youngsters key skills
Wanderers stars Matt Mills and Darren Pratley turned teachers for the afternoon recently when they took part in a special assembly at Claypool Primary School to educate pupils on emergency life-saving skills.
Delivered by Bolton Wanderers Community Trust, the school assembly was part of the Wanderers Hearts and Goals charity initiative - a campaign devised last season with the mission of helping to prevent death caused by Sudden Cardiac Arrest by raising awareness, offering CPR training to schools, workforces and community group as well as fundraising to position defibrillators throughout the community of Bolton.
Whilst BWCT staff led the assembly in front of all the school pupils from the primary school in Horwich, Matt and Darren helped to demonstrate how to perform basic CPR and how to use a defibrillator before two children were chosen to put their new found skills to the test by putting the two players into the recovery session.
The Wanderers duo then took part in a question and answer session where they talked to the children about the importance of an active lifestyle and how crucial it is for everyone to have access to AED equipment before ending their visit by presenting the school with their own defibrillator alongside BWCT staff and other charity partners of Wanderers Hearts and Goals including North West Ambulance Service, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Physio Control.
Speaking after the visit, Darren said: “I was on the pitch back at White Hart Lane when Fabrice went down and it was probably the worst day of my life - it really puts everything into perspective and makes you realise that life is the most important thing and you can’t ever take that for granted.
"The work that BWCT do in the local community to highlight the importance of these defibrillators and teaching basic emergency life-saving skills is brilliant.”
For more information on Wanderers Hearts and Goals visit www.bwct.org.uk