St John Ambulance volunteers broke all records on Saturday 2nd April.

Caterham Division trained 314 people, which means that over the five years that the Surrey Breath of Life event has been running, more than 1,000 life-savers have been created in Caterham. This is far and away the highest in Surrey, a tribute to the hard work of the team of volunteers who go to enormous lengths to get the message out to the public.

Across the county a total of 1,630 people were taught life-saving first aid, smashing last year's figure of 1,504 and bringing the overall number trained since Surrey St John launched its free sessions in 2007, up to an impressive 6,507.

The volunteers showed members of the public how to assess a casualty, and if breathing, to put them into the recovery position and clear their airway. If the casualty is not breathing, the volunteers were shown how to do chest compressions and rescue breaths.

These simple skills save lives and St John Ambulance believes passionately that no-one should suffer from a lack of first aid skills. The organisation's charitable mission is to 'be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.' All people had to do was turn up and join in one of the 30 minute sessions and the response was fantastic.

This year Breath of Life was held at 15 venues - more than ever before - and involved hundreds of volunteers including cadets. "It was an amazing day," said organiser Zena Latham. "There was great camaraderie amongst all the divisions and enthusiasm from everyone. Without such a great team effort we could not have achieved such a fantastic result."