FORMER Bolton Wanderers star Fabrice Muamba has handed a 100,000-signature petition to Downing Street campaigning for emergency lifesaving skills to be taught in schools.

The ex-Whites midfielder backed the British Heart Foundation campaign after his life was saved using emergency equipment.

Mr Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in March when Bolton were playing Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

Yesterday he went to Downing Street to deliver the petition.

The British Heart Foundation wants children all over the country to learn life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills so they can increase the chance of people surviving heart attacks.

The decision to teach CPR currently rests with individual schools, but the BHF wants to see it put on the national curriculum.

Mr Muamba said: “Every year thousands of men, women and children witness someone having a cardiac arrest. They see someone — a friend, family member, or a complete stranger — collapse with little chance of survival without prompt CPR and a defibrillator.

“Sadly, not enough of those bystanders step in and help because they don't know life-saving skills, including vital CPR.

“But decision-makers across the UK have the power to fill our streets and homes with more life-savers and improve our terrible cardiac arrest survival rates by making sure all young people learn life-saving skills at school.

“It would create hundreds of thousands of new life-savers every single year.

“It only takes two hours to learn these skills, repeated each school year, but in return the next generation will be given a lifetime of confidence to help in a medical emergency.”