Harborough Football Club hosts fundraising match for cardiac charity after player, 20, collapsed mid-game

The team celebrating their first fundraising match last year.

Harborough Town Football Club is hosting a charity game to ‘give back’ after a coach’s life was saved when he suffered a cardiac arrest mid-match.

The game, which will raise awareness and funds for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), is being held at the club, 3pm on Saturday (March 9).

It is the second charity game the club has held for CRY after the life of U13s Academy Coach Ed Cooper was saved two years ago.

The then 20-year-old was mid-game when he suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing.

Following a 999 call, trainee paramedic Patrick Evans received an alert, via an app, which is sent to the nearest approved volunteer responder when an emergency call is made.

He and fellow Royal Air Force Air Cadets Helen Greaves and two others, who cannot be named, were based at a nearby squadron and went to assist, arriving before paramedics. They used a defibrillator and shocked the player while also giving CPR to restart his heart.

The cadet learned the player had been hit in the head during a tackle earlier in the week and had suffered an electric shock the previous week.

But, thanks to his quick-thinking team mates (who started CPR) and the air cadets, Ed is around to play today.

And he says the charity game is the team’s way of ‘giving back’.

Ed said: “By raising money for Cardiac Risk in the Young they can reduce the frequency of cardiac death in the young by providing appropriate screening facilities and promoting and protecting the cardiac health of the next generation.

“Having been lucky enough to be on the surviving end of a sudden cardiac arrest myself, it has given me a first hand insight into the effects Young Sudden Cardiac Death can have on families and friends.”

According to CRY, every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions. It aims to promote and develop heart screening programmes to diagnose young people with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions.

Visit their Just Giving page for information and to donate to CRY.