Fourteen year old Finchley Cadet Lance Corporal Aaron Field has been awarded the St John Young First Aider of the Year Award at Cadet Headquarters in Hammersmith. The presentation by Lieutenant Colonel Mark Hodson TD Commandant of Middlesex and North West London ACF was made on Monday 30^th January in recognition of life saving actions by Aaron in January 2011. 

As part of his normal syllabus Cadet Lance Corporal Aaron Field had just attended his First Aid Training. Amazingly he put it into practice at home in the following week.   Whilst his dad was doing some repairs at home, he fell off a ladder and through a glass window severely injuring his arm. Luckily, Cadet Lance Corporal Field was on hand and able to give first aid straight away, which saved his dad the use of his arm. He recalls what happened. 

“Late one Saturday evening I was in my room when I heard a crash. I ran downstairs and saw my dad hold his forearm. I told him to let me have a look and I saw a big deep cut with lots of blood and there was muscle hanging out. I looked to see if there was any glass in the wound but there wasn’t so I gave my dad a towel which he wrapped round his arm and told him to apply pressure. He went pale so I asked him to sit on the floor and raise his arm.  There was a lot of blood but I didn’t panic, I remembered what I was taught and having called an ambulance I put into practice all the First Aid training I’d learned at Army Cadets.”

Aaron, a pupil at Bishop Douglas School has been a cadet for 18 months. His father, a former cadet himself, is Company Sergeant Major Instructor Martin Field has been a Cadet Leader since 2004. At the presentation he said. “I am both very proud and also very grateful to Aaron, he saved my life in were fairly dire circumstances – he knew just what to do and took full control of the situation” 

First Aid is one of the many life skills taught in the Army Cadet Syllabus to teenagers aged 12-18 years.