THOUSANDS of Hampshire youngsters will be visited by volunteer medics to equip them with vital first aid skills.

Schools in the Southampton area will be among the first to benefit from a project devised by the St John Ambulance Brigade, which is sending its members to education establishments across the county.

More than 3,000 children, teenagers and trainee teachers will be shown what to do in a life-or-death emergency.

Lorrin Evans, the brigade’s schools liaison officer in Hampshire, said: “We are visiting all age ranges from sixyear- olds at Fair Oak Infant School to trainee teachers at the University of Southampton.

“Up to 150,000 people die each year in situations where first aid could have given them a chance to live.

“St John Ambulance believes no one should die because they needed first aid and didn’t get it. The work of our trainers – and the first aiders they are teaching – is crucial in being the difference between lives lost and lives saved.”