Musician and broadcaster Myleene Klass went back to school on Thursday to take part in a St John Ambulance street first aid programme and discuss her own experience of having her drink spiked.
Ms Klass joined Trinity Academy students in Brixton Hill, Brixton for the Young Responders initiative which teaches lifesaving first aid.
Spiking is a very personal issue for Ms Klass who revealed she was spiked when she was 20-years-old.
She said: “I’ve been in that situation when I had a drink spiked and people around me didn’t know what to do.
“You hear these horror stories where people think ‘they’ve just had too much alcohol, it’s just a coming of age thing’ and they just put them to sleep on the sofa and they never wake up.
“No parents want that.
“No child obviously wants that.
“We teach our kids to look out for your friends, for each other, and this is a way of doing that.”
Myleene talking to Trinity Academy students (Picture: London Ambulance Service)
She joined Year 10 and 12 students along with her teenage daughter Ava Klass, 15, for street first aid demonstrations including what to do in spiking attacks.
A Government poll of 2,000 people commissioned for The Independent, found a third of women and one in five men have been spiked or know someone who has.
Ms Klass, who has been first aid trained by St John Ambulance said: “As a parent and mother of a teenager, I think it’s our responsibility to arm them with facts.
“We want them to go out and have fun at parties and festivals – they’ve been locked away for long enough – but there has to be a balance.
“You want them to be safe and ultimately, if they or their friends get themselves into trouble, you want your child to know what to do.”
Targeting secondary school students and young adults aged up to 25, the Young Responders programme is being rolled out across the country with the goal of giving 15,000 young people street first aid skills by the end of the year.
Trinity Academy teacher Jenny Lee Kearns, said: “We at Trinity Academy believe every child should have the knowledge to perform basic first aid.
“This is especially important considering the current knife crime rates and the relative deprivation in the area.
“After completing the sessions, our students are more prepared to step in if they were to witness a violent crime or injury.”
Pictured top: Myleene and Ava Klass (Picture: St John Ambulance)
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