Coach reunites with player after saving his life in cardiac arrest

A Charlton Athletic community coach has been reunited with a walking football player whose life he saved in June after learning CPR.

Matt Phillips performed CPR on Alan Ford, 78, when he suffered a heart attack which caused a cardiac arrest during a game in South East London. He went on to use a defibrilator as they waited for paramedics. 

The pair were reunited to mark Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation's Every Minute Matters campaign, which hopes to encourage 270,000 people to learn CPR this year to help save more lives like Alan's. 

Luton defender Tom Lockyer, who suffered a cardiac arrest mid-match in December 2023, has thrown his support behind the campaign which has already recruited over 100,000 to engage with the BHF's online training tool RevivR since May.

On meeting Alan for the first time since the incident, 'heroic' coach Phillips said: 'I'm getting a call, Matt, Matt, quickly, quickly. I turn and Alan's on the floor, you can see from his chest, it looked like he was trying to breathe.

'I knew what was happening. I shouted out to my colleague Jack, Jack, get me the defib, we knew where it was, at the main reception. I'm trained in CPR as part of the job. The other person that was helping me with CPR was Steve Cleak, he was giving breaths whilst I was doing chest compressions.

'While Jack was setting the defib up, we were doing CPR for I would say, maybe five minutes. I didn't even think about it. It was only after you finish, you stop, you're processing it.

'I was just glad he was alive and we could do something for him. I just thought, I've got to do it quick because time is not on his side. I just had to do it. That was foremost in my mind.'

Alan, who was unconscious for 10 minutes, was taken to Kings College Hospital in South London, where he later underwent a quadruple heart bypass and had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) fitted.

An ICD is a small device which is surgically implanted in the body to help detect and treat dangerous heart rhythms that can cause cardiac arrest.

He is back enjoying a fairly active lifestyle but is undergoing a cardiac rehabilitation programme before he can return to football. 

He said: 'I just don't know how I could thank Matt enough from my heart and from my wife Sue. We love him so much. I think it's very, very important for people to know how to do CPR because you never know when something's going to happen.

'It's got to be done. If you're worried about hurting them, remember you're helping to save them. Also to have that defibrillator there, someone trained on it, it's so important and it's a must really for all these sports places, workplaces, parks, wherever, to have these. 

'You never know what's going to happen, like it happened to me.'

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: 'The swift actions of Matt and his teammates were nothing short of heroic and it's thanks to their efforts that Alan is here today.

'When someone has an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, every minute matters and both CPR and defibrillation can be the difference between life and death. However, we know that so many people still haven't learnt CPR or lack the confidence to use a defibrillator.

'Learning CPR is easy to do through the BHF's free online RevivR tool. In just 15 minutes, using a mobile phone and a cushion, you can learn the skills to save a life - giving someone the best chance of survival in the event of a cardiac arrest.'

There are more than 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests in the UK each year - at least five every 90 minutes. Each minute that passes without CPR reduces the chance of survival by up to 10 per cent. Less than one in ten people survive, often because those around them lack the skills or confidence to perform CPR.

An incredible £639,000 has been raised so far, including £380,000 from the Sky Bet Play-Offs in May, and £259,000 since August through Sky Bet’s pledges to donate £10,000 for every ‘stoppage time’ EFL goal, and £1000 for every goal scored over the weekend of World Heart Day.

The British Heart Foundation will use the money raised by the campaign so far to help continue to fund its community resuscitation activity, training more people in lifesaving CPR and defibrillation skills. This will include funding at least 80 more community defibrillators across the UK. 

To learn CPR in just 15 minutes, please visit this link.