Could I have saved my parents’ lives if I’d been taught CPR?

Cameron McGerr was due to be with his parents to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary last month.

Instead, the 16-year-old son of Lynne and Kevin McGurr appeared before members of the Scottish Parliament and said he had lost both of them to heart disease.

He believes he could have helped at least one of his parents in a time of crisis if he had been taught the vital skills of CPR at a younger age.

Having already convinced his school in Inverclyde to introduce first aid training, he now wants it to be rolled out in schools across Scotland.

Cameron's father Kevin died of cardiac arrest in February this year. This happened three years after Lynn suffered a fatal heart attack.

The couple has been married since September 30, 1995.

“After my dad died I thought maybe I should do something about it,” said Cameron, a pupil at Clydeview Academy in Gourock.

“The first time I thought it was bad luck, but the second time I thought, 'Well, I was 15, I really should have known what to do.'

Now Cameron and his classmates are studying how to perform CPR is a potentially life-saving treatment that allows blood to be pumped throughout the body, thereby allowing extra time to obtain a defibrillator that can be used to try to restart the heart.

He hopes more schools across Scotland will soon do the same and support his Pulse of Life campaign.

“It could be your mom, it could be your dad, it could be your sister or it could be a friend, a neighbor, a stranger,” said Cameron, who now lives with his aunt.

“The truth is this can happen to anyone at any time. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that, and I think that’s why everyone needs to be fully prepared to be able to step in and do that.”

When Cameron spoke to MPs at Holyrood last monthHe estimates that when his father collapsed, he lost about two and a half minutes of time panicking about what to do.

He said: “I believe that if I had known CPR, I would have been able to save my father. I would have been more confident performing CPR, less worried when his ribs broke under the force of my hands.”

“I wouldn’t have to wait for a 999 operator to instruct me what to do. I lost perhaps two and a half minutes in my panic, which instantly reduced his chances of survival by 25%.”

British Heart Foundation Around 3,800 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year in Scotland, with a survival rate of one in 10, according to the data.

Health groups and medical charities believe this number could improve if more people felt confident in performing CPRand were able to take action quickly.

“I'm not doing this for myself or to prove a point – I'm doing it because I know it will make a difference,” Cameron says of the campaign.

Clydeview students and staff have responded enthusiastically to the CPR lessons, saying it has given them the confidence to perform it if necessary.

Craig Gibson, headteacher at Clydeview School, told BBC Scotland News that Cameron had shown “remarkable resilience in the face of such tragedy” over the past three years.

“Cameron and I met a few times and he spoke quite openly with me about the impact the loss had on him, but more importantly, the changes he wanted to make,” says Craig.

The school hopes to have all current S1 students trained in CPR by the end of the current school year. The teaching model will then be expanded to other secondary schools across the region.

However, Cameron had already seen his campaign go overboard, leading to his appearance in the Scottish Parliament.

This happened on what was supposed to be his parents' wedding anniversary.

Despite his nerves, he remembers with emotion how he woke up to his father screaming, not knowing what to do after his mother had a heart attack.

“I wonder if they gave me cardiopulmonary resuscitation trainingI could intervene and change the situation.

“However, I can’t live my life wondering, “What if?” I need to live to make a difference for other people who may be facing the same problem.”

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth wrote to Cameron asking for a meeting with him.

A Scottish Government spokesman said it would continue to work with partners to ensure pupils have the opportunity to learn CPR, something many schools already do.

No matter how far his campaign goes and no matter what the impact, Cameron is sure of one thing: his parents would be proud of what he does.

“I think they would have been a little, not taken by surprise, but a little shocked, because here was this shy boy who didn't like confrontation, didn't like public speaking, who just went and addressed the country's parliament.

“They would be immensely proud and I knew that before I did it.

“They will always be proud no matter what, and I think that’s what keeps me going.”