Shocktober is aimed at improving cardiac arrest survival rates with an estimated one in 10 people surviving a cardiac arrest.

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As part of the initiative, Ambulance Victoria will be holding free 30 minute online sessions for Bendigo and Loddon Mallee region residents.

The sessions will focus on how to perform CPR.

Bendigo based paramedic Ben Millar encouraged residents to take advantage of the free sessions and said it could save someone else's life one day.

"We want to promote CPR training to as many people as possible and we want to promote the AED registry and also the GOODSam app."

GoodSAM is a life-saving app that alerts nearby volunteers to patients in cardiac arrest. It allows the patients to connect with a volunteer who is willing to start hands-only CPR until an ambulance arrives.

More than 50 Victorians are alive today after receiving early CPR from GoodSAM Responders.

Now in its second year, Shocktober is a month-long campaign aimed at improving cardiac arrest survival rates.

Over 6,000 Victorians suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year.

Tragically, only one in 10 people survive.

Mr Millar said that's why it was vital that residents were quickly to act in the first critical moments of a cardiac arrest.

"We know that the more people who know CPR training, the more lives that we are going to save," he said.

"We attend to 18 cardiac arrests a day on average at Ambulance Victoria. Responding quickly with CPR during those early minutes of a cardiac arrest is very valuable."

When a bystander performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a person is twice as likely to survive.

If an automated external defibrillator is also used, this survival rate dramatically increases from one in 10 to more than seven in 10.

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The two free sessions for the Loddon Mallee region are happening at 7pm on 20th and 27th October.

The sessions are open to anyone who is interested in learning/having a refresher on CPR, essentially how bystanders can help in the first critical minutes of a cardiac arrest.

Anyone who is interested in attending either session should email community.engagement@ambulance.vic.gov.a

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