British Heart Foundation

For those of you who don’t know, I collapsed playing football back in March 24. Football had always been such a big part of my life, I couldn’t often recall a Saturday without playing it.

When it happened, everyone on the pitch rushed over and came to my aid. When I came to, I felt this overwhelming sense of tiredness. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and eat pizza.

An ambulance arrived at the ground and immediately began to work on me. They made me feel as comfortable as they could during the whole process.

When I arrived at southmead hospital, every member of staff supported me getting from the ambulance to a room that I would call home for the next 5 days.

During my time at southmead, I was very well looked after. I had regular visits from nurses and doctors to check on my heart and lung function. I had extensive ECG’s, fitness tests and a whole abundance of scans to understand and isolate what the problem was.

What no one tells you about the whole experience is exactly how scary it is. My family and friends were very supportive with regular visits to see how I was and to of course keep me company. When they left was when the real battle happened.

Being left along with your thoughts allows you to really reflect and digest what happened. I found myself crying daily in between visits. All I could think about was how lucky I was to be alive and what could have been. I thought about my son and what legacy I had left behind for him, I thought what position I would have left my wife in financially and emotionally. I thought about everything.

Without the support of everyone at Charfield AFC, Southmead hospital and my friends and family, it could have been so different for me.

In March 25, I will be running a marathon local to me to raise money for British Heart Foundation.