A WALTON school has been gifted an anti-choking device thanks to a lifesaving charity.

Walton Pre School, in Standley Road, received a LifeVac anti-choking device from the Oliver Steeper Foundation.

Laura Grant, Walton Pre School's manager, said: "We are so very grateful to the Oliver Steeper Foundation for their very kind donation of a LifeVac anti-choking device."

Laura recently attended the Nursery World show in London, where the parents of Oliver Steeper, Zoe and Lewis, were displaying the lifesaving device.

The Oliver Steeper Foundation aims to provide a lifesaving anti-choking medical device to registered early years settings.

This is to help prevent any other family from going through the tragedy of losing a child to choking, which they sadly experienced in 2021.

With this donation came access to free training which all the school's staff have now completed.

All staff are already Paediatric First Aid trained and would only use this equipment after all basic life support procedures had failed.

Laura continued: “We are very grateful for this donation and are proud to have this opportunity to share Oliver's story.

"Through tragedy, the family have found the strength to support others so that children’s choking incidences can be reduced and to have successful outcomes.”

Since January 2024, the Oliver Steeple Foundation has gifted more than 40 kits into school settings.

Since 2023, LifeVac has saved more than 1,040 children due to choking incidents ranging from four months to 16 years of age.

LifeVac helps to dislodge many things from a child’s airway such as grapes, marbles, coins, hotdogs, hard-boiled sweets, marshmallows, sandwiches, crisps and much more after the initial first aid choking protocol had failed.