I was a member of the Red Cross between the ages of 13 to 21 where I did Basic First Aid, Advanced First Aid and Nursing.
I also trained as a Life Guard in water safety and also water survival training and also first aid for treating people in the water.
I didn't keep up the course work after 21 as I had moved away because of work and despite that I have come to the aid of around 9 people, the most recent one was a gentleman in a cafe that I an my son had just sat down to eat a meal and noticed that the gentleman was not able to hold his head up. I went through the checks for a stroke because his wife advised me that he had recently had a neural embolism and all seemed fine on that score, breathing although shallow was regular and had a nice strong pulse that was normal.
The ambulance came and that was the last we saw, it was speculated that the gentleman had contracted food poisoning because his pain was in his lower intestines and he had just brought back up his lunch he had in the cafe.
I have come across someone choking on a sweet and I do know from personal experience what that is like and for me it was a case of self administration of first aid because no one in the car knew what to do.
I have had a neighbour banging on my door at 4 in the morning, his friend had collapsed and stopped breathing and had to perform resuscitation and CPR.
Other incidents I have come across were varied from sprains to an RTA that I was also involved in.
I just hope that when its my turn (again) that their will be at least someone with some knowledge of First Aid, it is very important if you are going out in to the country or out of the country as it can be a life saver, it takes very little to learn it and as one person in this thread put, its all about procedure. Knowing what to do, keeping your head and designating tasks to any bystanders to make your job easier is not a skill, its about understanding how to follow procedure and how to enact it.
It has been a very useful tool and also very useful if you are looking for work because employers will take advantage of your skills to comply with HSE regs.