I would ordinarily say it was just like any other Sunday morning. On this particular Sunday, my daughter Sophie, who was 22 at the time, was home with us from university and asked if I wanted a game of squash with her, her boyfriend Jake and a friend some university. I said “Yes, of course.”
For the last 15 minutes, I was playing with Sophie, while the two boys played on the next court over. I bent down to pick up the ball to serve – and that was it. No warning bells, I just went straight over with a sudden cardiac arrest.
Luckily, Sophie was familiar with first aid and CPR – and she didn’t panic. She ran next door, got one of the boys to call 999, and brought Jake back to where I was. With her help, he gave me CPR. She then ran off to find the club manager and a defibrillator. Amazingly, the club manager had been on a CPR refresher course just the week before, and so they continued to give me CPR and use the defibrillator to deliver shocks in the 10 minutes or so before the paramedics arrived and took over.
The first thing I knew was coming round in hospital later that day, with my wife on one side and daughter on the other, holding my hands.
It’s been a long road to recovery – both physically and mentally. But in February this year we celebrated my first ‘re-birthday’, and I’m now back to exercising and working, though I’ve changed my lifestyle to reduce stress.
