Today's Good Samaritans Songs of Praise

Hello. This is St John's Gate in London,

the historic home of the Order of St John,

a charity that can trace its history all the way back

to 11th-century Jerusalem.

The Order is better known to us as the St John Ambulance,

who've been treating sick and injured people for over 140 years.

Welcome to Songs Of Praise.

On the programme...

I learn some first aid tips and hear how this St John Ambulance trainer

had to put his life in the hands of his students.

I found myself going, "Come on, Jesus.

"One, Jesus, two, Jesus, three, Jesus..."

I find out about the origins of the ancient religious

Order of St John, and the monks who founded it.

And we meet the Good Samaritan who made history when she became

the first person in Britain to donate a kidney to a complete stranger.

I think that, on the whole, the holy spirit acts in us,

and that many things that we can do, we should do.

This is the modern Priory Church,

here at the headquarters of St John Ambulance in Clerkenwell, London.

Thanks to their volunteers,

400,000 people a year learn how to save lives.

I'm looking forward to brushing up on my first aid skills,

because you never know when you're going to need them.

The charity is spread throughout the country,

and our music today comes from across the UK.

As it's the season of Lent,

we'll start with a hymn that's often sung at this time of year -

I Will Sing The Wondrous Story.

St John Ambulance have been helping others for decades.

Whether it's at sporting occasions,

pop concerts, or training others in the basics of first aid,

like our group here today in London.

So what we're going to look at for the next few minutes

is the use of the triangular bandage...

Each of us learning first aid has our own reasons for being here.

We're sisters, and we have a large family, so you never know

when a situation is going to come up where we might need to step in.

Our ages range in our family from 60 down to 6 weeks.

So any kind of situation could come up.

I help at a church men's group, some of them have quite significant

health problems, and I'm quite mindful of that.

As it's Lent, you're not just meant to give something up,

but you're also meant to learn something new or give something

back, so I thought this was a good opportunity to do that.

Shall we say Chloe's left forearm might be fractured?

We can put her hand inside of her jacket,

like so, and there we are.

Encourage her to support it.

Running our session is David Knowles from Exeter.

He's been a St John Ambulance trainer for 17 years.

St John Ambulance believes that nobody should suffer

for want of first aid, wherever they are

and whatever their age might be.

Do you think it should be taught in schools?

Yeah, I think it should be,

because it's about getting close to people, helping them -

with their permission, of course - and it brings out the human side

of you, something that can easily be covered in this modern age.

David feels that helping people in need is part of his Christian faith.

Just think of the Good Samaritan, for instance,

who crossed the road to help the poor person who'd been mugged,

to use today's terms, whilst everyone else was passing him by.

I think you will find that Jesus never passed somebody by who asked them for help.

Do you think Jesus would be trained in first aid?

-I think he's the instigator of it.

-THEY LAUGH

We'll be back later to hear the remarkable story of how, last year,

David's teaching skills were put to the test

when he had to rely on one of his students to save his life.

Thank goodness he's such a great trainer.

Our next hymn is a joyful celebration of the ultimate saviour.

The charity St John Ambulance dates back almost 1,000 years,

to the ancient religious Order of St John.

The museum here at St John's Gate tells the history of the charity,

and its surprising link to Jerusalem.

Tom Foakes is the director.

Now, Tom, I recognise this church.

That's the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,

-where Jesus is supposed to have been buried.

-Absolutely.

If we take ourselves to the 11th century, many pilgrims

would travel to the holy city of Jerusalem

to visit this and other holy sites,

and clearly travel in that time was not quite as convenient

as it is today, so by the time they got to Jerusalem

they were often in quite a poor state of health.

So the Order of St John established a hospital in Jerusalem

to care for those sick pilgrims, regardless of faith,

and provide them with first aid care.

-Amazing, and who's this?

-This is the Blessed Gerard,

the man who we can thank for all of this.

He established the hospital in Jerusalem

and began that exemplary healthcare.

But it's not named after Gerard, it's named after John -

presumably John the Baptist.

Exactly, yes.

Gerard is also responsible for the insignia of St John.

The famous eight-pointed cross was worn on the monks' robes.

So the symbol that you see on the side of an ambulance today

is one continued, unbroken line from those original Hospitaller brothers

as a symbol of first aid and humanitarian care.

Over the following centuries,

the Order of St John spread across the world,

building hospitals and churches wherever they went.

St John's Gate here in Clerkenwell in London became its English base.

-Tom, this place is amazing.

-Yes.

So we are standing in the original Priory Church of the Order of St John,

and this is the crypt,

so this was the real focus of that religious devotion.

So what happened to the Order?

Well, in 1540, if you know your history, Henry VIII on the throne.

He split from the Catholic church and in that year, 1540,

the Order of St John was the last Catholic order in England to be dissolved.

So then, prior of the Order here in England, William Weston,

died of a broken heart on the day that the Order was dissolved.

Because he had lost his order to the dissolution of the monasteries?

Absolutely, yes. And we have his effigy, from his tomb.

But it didn't stay lost for long, did it, the order of St John?

How was it re-established?

Well, in the 19th century, Britain was transformed.

It has become a very industrialised country and there was no

health and safety, there was no National Health Service,

and there were many influential men and women who saw

that original caring mission of the Order of St John

and they wanted to address that in a modern way,

so St John Ambulance was established as the charitable output of the Order,

to provide, firstly, first aid training to the general public,

and secondly as the uniformed brigade that you would be familiar with today

and all those St John Ambulance volunteers who provide first aid to the public.

Amazing to think that it all started because of the need to care for sick travellers.

Our next hymn, He Who Would Valiant Be,

reminds us of the courage shown by those early pilgrims

when they made their journey to Jerusalem all those centuries ago.

Earlier this week, the hugely influential American evangelist

Billy Graham died, aged 99.

We'll remind you of his global impact on Christianity

in a special feature coming soon,

but, for now, we dedicate one of his favourite hymns, Just As I Am,

to his memory.

Lots of people would love to learn how to save a life,

but not everyone would be prepared to give away

one of their kidneys to a complete stranger.

JB Gill has been to meet a woman who did just that

and began a whole new movement of good Samaritans.

There are currently around 5,000 people in the UK in need

of a kidney transplant, but giving a kidney to someone you've

never met is still a relatively unusual thing to do.

Kay Mason made medical history in 2007

by becoming the first British organ donor

to donate to someone she didn't know.

When I realised that there were thousands of people on the waiting

list for a kidney, I felt that

I was in a good position to do it.

And what was your motivation?

I'm a great enthusiast for the holy spirit

and I think that, on the whole, the holy spirit acts in us

and that we are God's hands and feet

and that many things that we can do,

we should do. If you're willing to give a kidney to a friend,

then why not give it to somebody you don't know at all?

But Kay discovered doctors wouldn't allow her to donate.

So she wrote to the Department of Health to ask why.

I wrote to them several times - in fact, I wrote them as many times

as I felt I was able to without being classified as a nutcase!

And they constantly wrote back saying, yes,

it was a nice idea, but doctors would be reluctant to

operate on anybody for whom they couldn't see the benefit

and it didn't make sense to them and they were worried about maybe

money changing hands or coercion,

which didn't apply at all,

because obviously when it's out of your hands

and you just hand over your kidney and somebody else gives it

to somebody you don't know, there's no chance of money changing hands.

But then they did say that they were preparing a consultation document

and that if I would like to respond to that and make a contribution,

I could, so I wrote a letter and, in due course, the law was changed.

It was several years later.

Kay is now involved with the charity Give a Kidney

and regularly gives talks about her successful operation.

There are so many risks associated with it, I think

I'd be really terrified, even if I wanted to do it.

There aren't too many risks associated with it.

There's always a risk with any surgery, which one has to accept.

But I have been so thoroughly investigated and, in fact, now

I'm invited to go back every year for a checkup, so I think I'm better

looked-after and likely to stay healthier than if I hadn't done it.

-Did you ever meet the person you donated your kidney to?

-No.

There's always an understanding

when you do this that anonymity can be maintained

and if somebody particularly wants to be in touch,

particularly the recipient, that can happen.

But it isn't so in my case and that's... I'm fine with that.

Also here today is Lisa Burnapp from NHS Blood and Transplants.

The NHS's UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme

says one altruistic donation

can trigger a chain of up to three

further organ donations.

-Is there an age limit?

-There isn't, really. The average age of

people donating to somebody they don't know

is around 50.

We've had a lot of donors between the ages of 50

and the oldest was 85, so you can see the sort of range.

One of Kay's favourite hymns sums up the sense of calling she felt.

I'm very fond of the hymn I, The Lord Of Sea And Sky, because I think

that's quite motivational when you sing that bit, "Is it I?"

It makes you wonder, you know,

what you can be doing that you haven't done or might be able to do.

Back here in London,

we're marking the 140 years of St John Ambulance first aid training.

This is cardiopulmonary resuscitation - CPR.

The first thing we do then is to start off with 30 chest compressions

by placing the butt of your right hand or left hand

in the centre of the person's chest...

Here we go. Keep contact, yes. Keep contact.

David knows only too well how important it is to teach first aid.

Last year, he had to rely on his students

when his life was at risk, as his friend Karol explains.

Well, David and I are both

members of the same church

and each year, David is asked if he will do some first aid training.

Check the breathing anyway by pushing the chin up...

By about 10 o'clock,

I began to feel rather unwell.

I glanced up and looked at David and saw him

taking his pulse in his wrist and I thought,

"I know what this is about,"

"he's going to start off by some scenario,"

because on a previous year, he had told us that's

exactly what he often does.

But actually, he changed colour around his face and neck

and I began to worry.

I asked Karol to check my throat pulse, which was all over the place

and quite weak, so it seemed to me

that I was having a heart attack.

Karol, what was going through your mind?

If I'm honest, it was absolutely terrifying.

When a crisis hits, the time stops,

so it's a very strange feeling.

Time seems to stand still and you desperately want two things - one,

for God to suddenly miraculously answer prayers and actually...

there was a very real sense of the fact that God was with us,

and for somebody else, who knew more than you,

to walk through the door at that precise moment.

So the first part happened in that God showed up, the second

part about the expert didn't, so it really was down to us to cope.

I think the training

that David had done the year before kicked in and I actually

remember saying, "This would be hard to do in a real-life situation."

I started CPR and what I did,

which is going to sound strange,

I found myself going,

"Come on, Jesus - one Jesus, two Jesus, three Jesus..."

I remember getting to 40 and saying, "Come on, Jesus!"

And actually, he survived

and I'm sure that that is the mercy and grace of God,

because I'm sure we didn't do things in a textbook way.

It was born out of desperation

and faith that God would help us

at a time when we really, really needed it.

-David, you must be very proud of your pupils.

-Oh, I am!

She did what she was trained to do

and...that's great.

I actually arrested there,

but she bought me the time that enabled the experts to get to us.

David spent almost a month in hospital, but made a full recovery.

I think since that day,

the song 10,000 Reasons

has held a particular powerful poignancy for me,

the bit about whatever happens and whatever lies

in front of us, may we still be singing by the end of the day.

I found that really difficult at first to sing,

because it had been our experience that, actually,

God had been with us at a time of very great need.

Well, that's almost it for today.

Next week, Josie d'Arby

and Claire McCollum are in the UK's smallest city.

St Davids in Pembrokeshire is famous for its patron saint,

but also has links to Saint Patrick.

And we've a special performance from Katherine Jenkins.

We end today with a hymn that aims to bring everyone together.

Until next time, God bless.