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Our volunteers to teach vital first aid skills to customers, colleagues and communities in Nationwide initiative

In 2026, we’re working alongside Nationwide and digital payments leader Visa to build life-saving communities across the UK. We’ll bring essential first aid skills to the places where people live and work and build the confidence people need to act in an emergency.

This new national campaign will launch on Friday, June 5, supported by BAFTA‑winning knife-crime documentary filmmaker and actor, Ross Kemp. Together, we’ll be championing the power of first aid to save lives.

Nationwide, which has more branches than any other bank or building society in the UK, has partnered with Visa to install St John Ambulance HEART defibrillators and Public Access Trauma (PAcT) kits at its 605 branches, in what is believed to be the largest-ever UK combined rollout of life-saving kits.

The life-saving equipment is designed for anyone to use in an emergency and will help to ensure rapid access when every minute counts. The kits will be available 24/7 unless within a shopping centre and can be accessed by the public as directed by 999.

Ross Kemp and two St John Ambulance volunteers stood in front of a Nationwide branch. Toss Kemp is holding a defibrillator (AED).

Learn more essential first aid

How to do CPR

If someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, you need to call 999 or 112 for emergency help and start CPR straight away. Learn what to do.

Learn More about How to do CPR

How to use a defibrillator (AED)

By using an automatic external defibrillator (AED) before an ambulance arrives, you can significantly increase someone’s chance of survival.

Learn More about How to use a defibrillator (AED)

How to respond to a life-threatening bleed

A severe bleed is likely to be slowed with pressure and usual bleeding treatments, a life-threatening bleed will not.

Learn More about How to respond to a life-threatening bleed

Life-saving skills

Alongside Nationwide’s installation of life-saving equipment, hundreds of our volunteers will offer first aid awareness sessions to up to 4,000 Nationwide branch colleagues. All 27,000 Nationwide colleagues will also be invited to complete specially developed modules, covering equipment familiarisation and essential first aid skills, including how to perform CPR, use a defibrillator, and treat a severe bleed, including using a tourniquet.

And from September, Nationwide and St John Ambulance will also run free first aid awareness sessions for members of the public, teaching the same vital skills.

Ross Kemp with St John Ambulance first aid trainer Flora, kneeling on the floor around a CPR manikin. Flora has her hands on the manikin doing chest compressions. Ross Kemp is observing.

An initiative with a lasting impact

Research conducted by Nationwide of 2,000 Britons highlights the gap in emergency support within communities:

  • Only one in five Britons feels very confident stopping a severe bleed (18%) or using a defibrillator (19%)

  • Only one in four (24%) feels very confident giving CPR

  • Nine in 10 (89%) people specifically want more public access to bleed control kits due to the rise in knife crime

  • 97% believe it’s important to have first aid training available for free in their local area

  • More than three quarters (77%) say they would attend nearby free sessions.

  • 87% of people would feel safer knowing there is life-saving equipment available in their local area

  • More than a tenth (12%) of Britons don’t know or are unsure what a defibrillator is.

  • Nearly half (47%) are unfamiliar with a bleed control kit

  • More than a third (34%) are unsure or don’t know what a tourniquet is

By supporting this life-saving initiative, we hope to close these gaps in community emergency resilience.

Together, we’ll ensure thousands more people have the confidence, skills and access to equipment to step in during a health emergency.

"In a life-threatening emergency, you're reliant on those closest by and quick intervention can often be the difference between life and death. Minutes and seconds matter.”

- Actor and gang knife-crime investigator, Ross Kemp

"With hundreds more public access defibrillators and bleed control kits across the UK, and thousands more people confident to use them, I have no doubt many more lives will be saved in our communities."

- St John Ambulance Chief Medical Officer, Professor Andrew Hartle

Nationwide and St John Ambulance logos.