South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) delivered vital lifesaving training during one of the UK’s largest Vaisakhi celebrations as part of ongoing efforts to tackle health inequalities and improve cardiac arrest survival rates.

The Trust’s Community Resilience team joined thousands of attendees at the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend on Saturday, 18 April, delivering hands-on basic life support training to members of the Sikh community.

The initiative forms part of SECAmb’s wider strategy to engage communities at greater risk of serious health conditions and less likely to access traditional healthcare education.

People of South Asian heritage, including many within the Sikh community, are at significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease, one of the leading causes of cardiac arrest. Despite this, research shows that some communities are less likely to receive or access early intervention support, including CPR training. SECAmb’s presence at Vaisakhi aimed to address this gap directly by taking lifesaving knowledge into the heart of the community.

Throughout the day, hundreds of people learned how to recognise a cardiac arrest, perform CPR and use a defibrillator – skills that could one day save a life.

Scott Montgomery, Community Resilience Manager for SECAmb, said: “We know that early intervention saves lives but not everyone has equal access to that knowledge. Events like Vaisakhi give us a vital opportunity to reach communities who may otherwise be underserved.

“The response we saw was incredible. People were not only keen to learn but genuinely engaged in understanding how they could help save a life. That’s how we begin to close the gap in health outcomes.”

The outreach also helped build stronger relationships with the Sikh community, supporting SECAmb’s long-term commitment to inclusive engagement and culturally aware care.

Delivering training was made possible thanks to the dedication of SECAmb volunteers, community resilience and patient engagement teams, colleagues from Medway and Dartford operating units and the Fleet Commissioning team.

By delivering training in trusted community settings, SECAmb is working to ensure that lifesaving skills and the confidence to use them are accessible to everyone.