Wednesday December 10th 2025
Green councillor Dan Heap, for Sighthill/Gorgie ward
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
All Edinburgh pupils should be offered CPR training in schools to help save lives, according to a city councillor.
The request comes as part of the nationwide Pulse of Life campaign, launched by an Inverclyde school pupil whose parents both died suddenly of heart conditions.
Dan Heap, Green councillor for Sighthill/Gorgie, has put forward a motion to the next full Edinburgh Council meeting calling for the change to be made.
In it, he writes: “Some Edinburgh schools provide CPR training to pupils, but the council has no record of which schools, and how many students in each have been taught CPR.
“All school students should be offered CPR training at an appropriate age.”
He asks council officers to take stock of current training available in capital schools, and explore how a city-wide scheme could be funded and delivered.
Clydebank Academy pupil Cameron McGerr lost his father from a cardiac arrest in February this year, after his mother died from a heart attack three years prior.
This September, he spoke to MSPs to spread awareness of his campaign, hoping that more schools across Scotland will pick it up.
In Holyrood, he said that he thought the training was best placed in PE classes, with full training given at the start of secondary school and a refresher in fourth year.
Cameron’s speech lined up with what would have been his parents’ 30th wedding anniversary.
St Andrews First Aid, as well as several MSPs, have put their weight and backing behind the campaign.
Councillors will consider the motion at the next full Edinburgh Council meeting, set to take place on Thursday, December 18, which you can view here.
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