YOU'RE never too young to save a life — that was the message to more than 200 teenagers who were taught one of the most important lessons they will ever receive at school.

Thornleigh Salesian College was one of the many schools taking part in the national Restart a Heart Day.

A team of medical experts including paramedics from North West Ambulance Service and from Bolton NHS Foundation Trust spent a day training pupils in CPR — cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Helen Grundy, assistant headteacher, said: "Learning CPR is a necessary lifeskills. I said to the pupils 'you are never too young to save a life'.

"We had 239 pupils attend the sessions in school.

"The young people asked some really pertinent questions such as how long you can carry on performing CPR, and they were told that medics worked on Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers footballer who collapsed on the pitch, for 70 minutes."

Pupils were also taught to spot the signs of a cardiac arrest and the importance of staying calm and recalling the techniques they had learned.

The school runs a number of First Aid training sessions in schools and Mrs Grundy said the event reinforced what they had learned.

A First Aid club is also to start at the school.

She said: "Knowing these skills empowers young people.

"Most of them will never need to use them but some may and they will have the skills to save a life."

The 200-plus pupils were among more than 100,000 people in schools and community groups to have been taught life-saving emergency techniques in the country during European Restart a Heart Day on Tuesday.

Dr Andrew Lockey, from the Resuscitation Council, said: "There will be in excess of 100,000 new lifesavers in the UK.

"This is a fantastic step towards training all children in CPR. That has to be the ultimate goal, to give victims of cardiac arrest the best chance of survival."

Sara Askew, head of survival at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Sadly less than one in 10 people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the UK. If we are to improve this shocking statistic we need more people with the skills and confidence to perform CPR."

A poll suggested more than half of UK adults have never had any training —while nearly half would be worried about causing more harm than good.