Frequently asked questions

Restart a Heart Live is a free online event where you’ll learn the essentials of lifesaving CPR and how to use a public access defibrillator. Our mission is to train as many school-age children and adults as possible, and to reach 1 million people by 2027.

Every year in the UK, more than 40,000 people suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and, sadly, only about 1 in 10 survive. Early CPR and defibrillation can double or even triple a person’s chances of survival. That’s why learning these skills is so vital: the more people who know CPR, the more lives can be saved.

Restart a Heart Live is designed for all ages. The sessions are simple enough for primary and secondary school-age children to join in, while still giving adults the confidence to perform CPR and use a defibrillator. If you can follow along for 20 minutes, you can take part.

The Restart a Heart Live 2026 livestream takes place on Thursday 1st October 2026. Training sessions are repeated hourly from 9am until 7pm. Previously, the 10am and 11am sessions were particularly suited to primary school aged children (5-11yrs). Later sessions will be particularly good to watch as families, after school. Full timetable is yet to be confirmed and will be published on the website.

If you can’t make it onto the livestream, don’t worry. You can still register and get access to a recording of the session to watch and use later. The most important thing is that we all learn CPR, whether live or afterwards.

We will send you a link so that you can print an official certificate of participation after the event. If your class or school or family has learned how to do CPR and use a defibrillator by taking part you can also register that you are ResusReady and get yourselves on the ResusReady map! For more details about ResusReady go here.

Taking part is simple. You only need about 20 minutes to learn CPR, practise using a cushion or a bag with a jacket in it. You will also be shown how to use a defibrillator.

On the day, all you need to do is be in front of a screen just before your chosen time, ready to join in with the livestream.

You can join from home, school or a community setting using just a cushion, teddy or a jacket in a bag to practise with.

To get started, register at www.restartaheart.live and we’ll send you updates and a joining link closer to the event. You can also encourage your child’s school to take part by writing to them using our ready-made template letter.

Great! Registering your interest will allow us to keep in touch, send you news and free resources, and also get an idea of which parts of the UK are learning how to do CPR and use an AED with us. Register here