Former Premier League footballer teaching school children first aid

“Like a lot of people, we panicked. We didn’t know what to do”.

Former Premier League footballer Gary Elkins, recalls the moment he and his partner realised one of his children was choking on their food.

“It just highlighted… how dangerous it is and how worrying it can be,” he says.

The incident inspired Mr Elkins and his partner to set up a business teaching adults, and children first aid.

He runs SaveYu whilst also working as a PE instructor at HMP Huntercombe in Oxfordshire, which he began shortly after retiring from professional football.

His courses teach children the basics of first aid including CPR, using defibrillators, and choking.

Today he’s at an Oxfordshire primary school where children are practicing chest compressions on small dummies under Mr Elkins’ close supervision.

Mr Elkins says children make great first aid students because they’re “good at taking things on board”.

It’s a far cry from Mr Elkins’s days as a footballer. Originally from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, his career included more than 100 appearances for Wimbledon.

While there he recalls a training ground incident involving Vinnie Jones which stuck with him.

“Two of the lads clashed heads and one of them had his tongue blocking his airway,” he says.

“None of us knew what to do. Between Vinnie and Stuart Castledine they prised his jaw open and were pulling his tongue out.

“It wasn’t the best way of doing it, but it highlighted how quickly something can happen and then change.”

He says one aim of his course is to give children knowledge they can then tell others in an emergency situation.

“[They can] pass on information to adults – to call 999, to get the response needed to save somebody’s life. We feel it’s really important”.

One of his students today, 10-year-old Beatrix, says her father’s career has inspired her to take part.

“I enjoy it because my dad’s an NHS nurse. I sort of grew up learning it and I like doing it in more detail”.

Chilton County Primary School head teacher Rebecca Vousden thinks the course provides important life experience for the children.

“They absolutely love it – but they also know the importance of it,” she says. “In an emergency they might be the only person available to know what to do.”