Every year, 30,000 Australians suffer from a cardiac arrest. On average, only about 9 per cent survive.
Events across Australia were set up on Monday   November 30 to target the first five minutes of a cardiac arrest, considered the most crucial in terms of survival rates, through CPR training. 
Paramedics held 15 minute information sessions on CPR, including practice sessions across Brisbane City and the Gold Coast.
Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Glen Morrison, who set up a stall in Queen Street Mall close to where a person had suffered a cardiac arrest just a week before, said the Take Heart Australia Day event was about making people feel comfortable performing CPR.
"People are able to see demonstrations and participate in demonstrations themselves by performing CPR," Mr Morrison said.
"Ultimately, there is a likelihood that if they do perform CPR it will likely be on someone they know.
"It is of vital importance, 76% of cardiac arrests happen in the home."
Meet Nick, the first to #TakeHeart with us in #Brisbane Queen St Mall for @TakeHeartAust day. Here from 10am - 3pm. pic.twitter.com/o7w68o0UCt
??? Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance)     November 30, 2015
Take Heart Australia founder Professor Paul Middleton said he had seen numerous cardiac arrests in his years as an emergency physician and he wanted to create an event that could help improve survival rates for those who suffered a cardiac arrest.
"When your heart stops, every minute that goes past there is a 10 per cent decrease in survival," Professor Middleton said.
"At three to four minutes, you have irreversible brain damage, so if you want to avoid any of these things you need to have CPR (performed on you) almost the second you fall over.
"If you do CPR, even compression CPR, it increases the 10 per cent per minute chances of survival, to 24 per cent chance of survival."
Professor Middleton said he first had the idea for Take Heart Australia after talking to colleagues in Seattle, USA, who said 76 per cent of their own population were trained in CPR thanks to various schemes relating to education and awareness.
He said the first four links to survival came down to those standing nearest the cardiac arrest victim and events such as Take Heart Australia helped to improve public awareness of CPR.
"It is basically to improve every link in the chain of survival," Professor Middleton said.
"The first link is recognising (someone is suffering from cardiac arrest), the second is calling for help, the third is performing CPR and the fourth is defibrillation. The rest is about what ambulances and hospitals can do."
More information can be found on the Take Heart Australia website.
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