Red Sky Foundation marks Restart a Heart Day with Bridges flash mob dance

Held on October 16 each year, Restart A Heart Day is dedicated to raising awareness about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the importance of knowing how to restart a heart that has stopped beating.

It serves as a reminder that anyone can learn basic CPR skills and encourages people to undergo CPR training and learn the skills they might need in an emergency.

Red Sky Foundation is Sunderland’s own heart health charity, which carries out CPR training and provides potentially life-saving defibrillators for locations across the city and further afield.

The Foundation was originally established by husband and wife Sergio and Emma Petrucci MBE to raise funds for the Freeman Hospital’s Children’s Heart Unit where their daughter Luna underwent heart surgery, but has since branched out to provide life-saving training and equipment and has donated more than 700 life-saving defibrillators to families, schools, businesses and community spaces across the North East. 

The charity’s team of Red Sky dancers - made up of pupils from Sunderland’s Ace Performers dance school - staged a flash mob dance event in The Bridges yesterday to spread the word and raise awareness of the big day.

Volunteers handed out dozens of leaflets to shoppers and businesses in the centre, urging people to visit the Foundation’s website and learn how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator.

“It;s Restart A Heart Day and obviously, with Red Sky, we celebrate that every day,” said the Foundation’s George Startin-Field.

“We’re here to raise awareness of how to perform CPR properly and to raise awareness of all things cardiac.

“We have a15-minute video on our website that takes you through the whole process of how to CPR properly so you can watch that and within 15 minutes you will know what to do in an emergency situation and how to perform CPR on someone.

“Www.redskyfoundation.com is the website you will be able to find that on.”