Two GSK Ulverston employees representing the antibiotics factory in a first-aid competition which attracted top teams from industries throughout the North dropped only a single point to win the pairs trophy.

Christine Allison, a compliance officer at the site, and Alan Robertson, a lead process technician, found themselves dealing with a scenario in which a dog attack victim had severe bleeding from multiple bites.

Arriving at the incident their immediate challenge was to deal with the dog which still presented a threat.

Judges at the Godfrey Trophy Competition, organised by the Scottish First Aid League and held in Glasgow, were so impressed with Christine and Alan’s performance that they deducted only a single mark out of a total of 120.

The pair have won medals at previous competitions and Christine described their latest victory as one of their best.

“The Godfrey Trophy is always strongly contested and it was brilliant to win the pairs with such a high score,” she said.

GSK Ulverston first-aid team colleagues Nikki Brown, a health & safety officer; Andy Wilson, a technical officer in Quality; and Josh Fitzgerald, a microbiology apprentice, also competed in a range of disciplines, which included individual and written tests.

Having recently joined the team, for Nikki and Josh it was their first taste of competition as a pair and they said they had learned a lot and were keen to carry on.

Team practice evenings are guided by experienced external trainer Shirley Bernath, with Yaa Serwaah Kwateng, a process engineer at GSK Ulverston, their long-suffering casualty during training sessions, which step up to weekly as the competition season approaches.

Peter Tayler, Site Environment, Health and Safety Lead, said: “The team practices hard and it was great to see Alan and Christine do so well against stiff opposition. Of course everyone who works at GSK Ulverston also has the reassurance that colleagues are on hand with the knowledge of what to do if first-aid skills are required.”