Vinnie Jones in CPR tv advertisement
Vinnie Jones appears in the television advertisement where he performs chest compressions to the beat of popular Bee Gees track Stayin' Alive - part of an initiative to encourage hands-only CPR YouTube.com

The Bee Gees have more than good music to be proud of. Now their smash hit song Stayin' Alive has been found to help save lives.

Their worldwide disco smash has been touted as having the ideal beat to follow for untrained good samaritans performing chest compressions on a heart attack victim.

The initiative, headed by the British Heart Foundation, advises people to focus on chest compressions rather than initiating mouth-to-mouth in its latest campaign for hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

As part of the campaign, a television advertisement featuring actor and ex-footballer Vinnie Jones will be broadcast throughout January and demonstrates the chest compression technique to the beat of the song.

A study has shown the track has 103 beats per minute, close to the ideal rate of 100 chest compressions per minute.

The foundation conducted a survey that showed nearly half of people are put off helping heart attack victims because of lack of knowledge about CPR. A fifth of respondents worried specifically about the thought of performing mouth-to-mouth or catching an infectious disease.

The UK-wide survey also revealed four in 10 people feared they would be sued if they did something wrong, despite the fact that there has never been a successful case of that kind in the UK. Without CPR of some kind there is a very small chance of someone surviving cardiac arrest.

The foundation's senior cardiac nurse Ellen Mason said the kiss of life can often be daunting for untrained bystanders who want to help when someone has collapsed with a cardiac arrest.

"Hands-only CPR should give lots of people the confidence and knowhow to help save someone in cardiac arrest, the ultimate medical emergency," she said. "It's been shown that hard, fast and uninterrupted chest compressions are better than stopping compressions for ineffective rescue breaths.

"If you're untrained or unconfident about the kiss of life give hands-only CPR a go instead - it could help save someone's life."

Jones, a former Chelsea footballer said there "shouldn't be any messing about" when it comes to CPR. "If you're worried about the kiss of life just forget it and push hard and fast in the centre of the chest to Stayin' Alive."

"Hands-only CPR should give have-a-go heroes the confidence to step in and help when somebody is in cardiac arrest," he said.

To view the television advertisement, click on the video below: