Moray people took part in life-saving training yesterday with a charity established to remember a local teenager.
Keiran’s Legacy was founded by Gordon and Sandra McKandie, following the death of their son in 2016, and they organised an event to mark International Restart a Heart Day.
The charity offered customers at St Giles Shopping Centre in Elgin the chance to learn how to perform CPR, use a defibrillator and other basic lifesaving skills.
It was done to raise awareness of how vital this knowledge would be in the case of a road traffic accident or a heart attack.
Mrs McKandie hoped that they would help to push through the importance of better training in basic lifesaving.
She said: “Keiran’s Legacy has been set up to try and get lifesaving equipment into communities, schools and fast response vehicles because there was no equipment there to help Keiran when he had his accident.
“Therefore, we are trying to push this forward and get people to know how to save a life.
“This is close to our charity’s heart because there was no equipment there that day to help Keiran, and we felt we couldn’t allow that to continue.
“So we’ve been working with communities and schools and the police department to get that out there.”
Keiran McKandie, from Miltonduff, was 16 years old when he died following a collision with a car while cycling on the outskirts of Elgin in March, 2016.
Since then, his family have devoted themselves to funding defibrillators across the north-east, including spearheading an initiative that has led to them being carried in police cars.
The charity’s latest scheme to distribute defibrillators to fast response vehicles in the Highlands will officially come to fruition on Monday, October 29.
It is the latest stage in the initiative to get every police car in Scotland equipped with the devices.
Mrs McKandie also wants to see them in place on Elgin High Street and is continuing her fundraising efforts.
She said: “We are trying to get one installed in the High Street as there is nothing there, so it’s quite important to try and raise the profile and awareness.
“People think the hospital is just up the road and the ambulance will be there, but that’s not necessarily the case.”