Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On 14th May last year I had a shock, quite literally, as my heart stopped. Without warning, I had a cardiac arrest caused by a completely blocked artery. I’m extremely lucky to still be here as there’s only a 10% chance of survival when this happens outside of a hospital.

When down, I was lucky to be at T800 where they had a defibrillator and was even luckier to be training with Paul as both he and Emily knew how to use it. They called an ambulance and within 20 minutes help arrived. Both Paul and Emily kept me here until then. 

In Suffolk about 1 in 100 calls for an ambulance are critical. It is then that the Suffolk Accident & Rescue Service (SARS) are called as they provide vital, specialist expertise in critical emergencies.

Fortunately, SARS sent Trish and Zoey, both of whom are specialist clinicians; one is a consultant anaesthetist at West Suffolk Hospital. Without their help (treating me at the scene and staying with me until I went into theatre at the NNUH), I might well be alive but I’m pretty sure my brain wouldn’t be working as it now is. I was astounded to learn that Trish and Zoey do what they do for SARS as volunteers on top of their busy day jobs for the NHS. I was also fortunate that they had volunteers on shift that day and that T800 was in a part of Suffolk that they could reach in time. 

I’d like to raise some money to help them grow their service so that they can help more people when they’re in a spot of bother… hence the walk. On 1st May 2022, almost a year on, I’ll be walking with a group of great friends starting from T800 in Eye to Norwich to raise as much money as possible for SARS. It’s not quite running a marathon but these days my heart rate isn’t supposed to exceed 140 bpm! All of us doing the walk would be extremely grateful for any support and if anyone fancies joining in please get in touch.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.