Last year there was an incident at a football match in Mid Cheshire Youth Football League where a teenage boy became suddenly very ill and quickly became unconscious. Fortunately, first aid was administered and an ambulance was called and after treatment in hospital the boy has fully recovered.
Following this incident the Committee members for the Witton Albion Football Club recognised how important it was to be prepared for all eventualities and made a life-saving decision to purchase 16 defibrillators, one for every team in the Youth League. They recognised that teams play at home and away and just owning one defibrillator at the Club was not sufficient. The Committee ensured all their coaches attended life-saving training on CPR and how to use a defibrillator at the FA and every team was issued with a defibrillator.
This decision was ground breaking in Youth Football and has led to Witton Albion Youth League being nominated for the Heart Safe Award 2018. The Award ceremony will take place in October and I will have the pleasure of attending with them and am I keeping my fingers crossed that they win!
Yesterday during a youth match at a local school one of the Witton Albion coaches noticed a small crowd gathered on the opposite side of the pitch. It turned out that an away Team Manager had collapsed and was very unwell. The coach was able to quickly call for their defibrillator and a team of people worked together administering CPR to help save the man’s life until the ambulance arrived.
We have since received reports that the Manager had suffered a heart attack during which time he had gone into cardiac arrest on 3 separate occasions. Thankfully, following surgery he is alive and on the road to recovery. Undoubtedly, the quick action of the coach and all who were involved in performing CPR and liaising with the ambulance on the day, and the decision of the Committee members to purchase those defibrillators helped save his life.
I am super proud of the Witton Albion Football Club Committee for making a decision that has already saved a life. I haven’t mentioned the Committee personally as they are a bashful lot. They give up so much of their time, free of charge to run a brilliant Football Club. They do it because they care about the kids. They are Coaches, Manager’s, Chairmen, Secretaries and Treasurers because their kids play football and they have a desire to help. In some cases they stepped up because nobody else wanted to do it and by giving up so much of their time and energy they have made a huge difference in somebody’s life.