Dorset residents will have the chance to learn how to give CPR and use a defibrillator at a series of free sessions across the county.

St John Ambulance volunteers are touring Dorset and teaching people how to save lives next week, as part of the charity's 2019 Restart A Heart campaign.

Residents can learn how to help someone who has gone into cardiac arrest, practical information on how to deliver cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and deliver shocks to the heart with a defibrillator.

The charity said: "Currently, fewer than one in 10 people in the UK survives a cardiac arrest out of hospital and St John Ambulance and its Restart a Heart partners want to change that.

"Chances of survival double when someone gives immediate CPR and significantly increase further when a defibrillator is used.

"Working with the Resuscitation Council and other partners, St John Ambulance’s first aid demonstrations will contribute to an ambition of teaching as many people as possible these skills in October."

The sessions will be in the St John Ambulance buildings in :

• Shaftesbury – Monday, October 14 from 8pm

• Portland – Tuesday, October 15 from 7.30 to 9pm

• Weymouth – Wednesday, October 16 from 7.30 to 9pm.

Further details, including many more locations across the south west are available at: www.sja.org.uk/restartaheart