‘That night was the worst of my life... I thought I had lost him
AMY’S CHALLENGE TO THANK 999 STAFF
THE fiancée of a cardiac arrest survivor is set to take on a monumental challenge to raise money for life-saving defibrillators.
Amy Donalson will never forget the night of March 20 last year as she found herself having to perform CPR on her husband-to-be Lee Stephenson.
Lee suffered a cardiac arrest at their home in Gosforth, Newcastle, after believing the chest pains he had been experiencing all day couldn’t possibly be a heart attack due to him being just 31 years old.
That night, Amy found herself calling 999 and putting the first aid skills she had learned at work into practice, desperately trying to save Lee’s life with the help of 999 health advisor Bradley Sanderson, while two ambulance crews were en route.
Thankfully, Lee is now making steady recovery.
Now Amy, 28, has set herself the challenge of running, walking and cycling 1,079km throughout March – a kilometre for every CPR call received by North East Ambulance Service in 2020.
Lee will be supporting Amy on her mammoth challenge as much as his doctors will allow.
The pair are hoping to help North East Ambulance Service’s Charitable Fund to install a defibrillator in Grangetown, Sunderland, where Lee grew up, in the hope of helping save someone else’s life.
And they are calling on members of the public to join in the challenge along the way by pledging to run, walk or cycle 1km themselves.
“That night was the worst of my life,” said Amy. “I thought I had lost him.
“He snores anyway but he started making this horrible noise so I turned
a the light on and I could see straight away that it was serious. His back was soaking, his hands were freezing, and he was going a bit blue.
“Without the amazing help of that call operator talking me through CPR and the fast response of the paramedic team, I have no doubt that Lee wouldn’t be with me today.
“I was able to thank the intensive care nurses, the cardiologists and doctors at the Freeman, however, due to the lockdown, we’ve only been able to thank one of the ambulance staff so far, so when we noticed a post on the NEAS Facebook account which showed call handlers had helped 1,079 999 callers to do lifesaving CPR in 2020, one of which was mine, I thought this would be a nice way to say thank you.
“Originally, I was going to try and do it in 20 days, finishing on the anniversary of the cardiac arrest, but Lee thought that might be a bit too much so I’ve extended it to the whole of March.
“It works out about 34km a day so it’s certainly going to be a challenge, especially since I haven’t been on a bike in years!
“I’ve borrowed my aunty’s bike and think I’m going to try and do a 10-mile cycle every morning and then a walk or a run in the afternoon.
“Obviously I can only exercise locally at the moment but luckily Exhibition Park is on my doorstep, which should make it a bit easier!
“We’re finally getting married in May after having to postpone the wedding last year so I’m hoping this will also help me lose some of the pounds I’ve put on during lockdown!”
Over the last year, Lee, now aged 32, has become passionate about raising awareness of cardiac arrests, and the importance of not ignoring symptoms.
He said: “Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests have just a one in 10 survival rate. When you look at it like that, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been.
“I had been getting shooting pains in my arm, but I had just started going to the gym so was thinking maybe I had a trapped nerve or pulled muscle.
“Amy was really worried and wanted me to call 999, but at the time it was all over the news about not burdening the NHS and I had just started going to the thought that because of my age, there was no way it could be anything serious so I took myself to bed thinking a good night’s sleep would make it better.
“I don’t remember anything else after that other than what Amy has told me.
“Since then, I’ve had three stents fitted. I’m still not back up to full fitness but I’ve just been taking it one day at a time and everyone has been amazed by how far I’ve come.
“It’s really important for me now to raise awareness, especially amongst young people. I’m young and was relatively fit – I’m proof that this can happen to anyone.
“I’d like to encourage people to join in by doing at least 1km, share the link, donate and tag a friend to challenge too, much like the ‘run five donate five’ challenge which was going around on social media last year.
“Any money we’re able to raise will help install more lifesaving defibrillators in our local communities and help save more lives. What more reason could you need?”
Alex Mason, community resuscitation officer at NEAS, said: “As both Lee and Amy have said, they were lucky.
“Amy realised that something was wrong, called 999 and, with assistance over the phone from our health adviser, started the CPR that Lee needed to buy him time until the ambulance crew arrived with their defibrillator to restart his heart.
“We need to increase awareness of cardiac arrest, the number of people who start CPR as well as the number of public access defibrillators in our region, and their brilliant challenge to raise funds for our charity will help us do this.
“I cannot thank them enough for sharing their story and commitment to fundraising for something so important. I am looking forward to working with them both to identify places that would benefit from a public access defibrillator thanks to their generosity.”
Join in the challenge at www. justgiving.com/fundraising/ 1079kmfor1079calls
A DAD who hit the headlines with his daily crisp sandwiches will have his creations printed in a recipe book.
Ben Taylorson, 40, has challenged himself to create a different crisp butty everyday during February.
The dad-of-two, from Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, became an internet sensation after posting the bizarre concoctions on Twitter.
One sarnie is inspired by the parmo while another favourite contains Tesco onion rings, cream cheese and pickled onions.
Ben has now been asked to put all of his inventions into a book by events company Ten Feet Tall, which runs Base Camp in his home town.
The book will be named ‘The Art of the Crisp Sandwich’ and will be released by the end of April.
Librarian Ben, pictured, who discussed his challenge on ITV’S This Morning, said: “They got in touch with me saying ‘would it be something I would be interested in doing?’
“I was amazed – I couldn’t believe it. It was a nice thing to be asked to do but I was very surprised.
“The idea is to sell it in local book shops. It’s been absolutely bizarre. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Someone ran past me in the street and shouted ‘crisp sandwich’ which was very funny.
“My family are bemused by the whole thing.”
Graham Ramsey, who has run Ten Feet Tall for around 20 years, approached Ben after coming across his #Crispfebruary challenge online. He said: “We spotted it was causing a proper fuss on Twitter and thought we were quite inspired by the recipes and the whole spirit of the thing.
“Right now it’s really putting a smile on people’s faces and I think it’s important.
“I’m quite intrigued by some of the ingredients he’s putting in there.”
Graham said he plans to initially release around 1,000 copies of ‘The Art of the Crisp Sandwich.’
He said: “We’re looking to print about 1,000 physical copies in the first instance.
“We will be selling them through our Amazon shop and hopefully getting them into food shops and gift shops.
“We’re having really good fun with it.
“We’re working really closely with Ben, it’s all about the recipes.
“The recipes themselves are beautifully written – there’s a real sense of mischief! We’re looking at about a months worth of recipes – about 30 recipes.
“We’re also working with local artists and graphic designers. It will be really interesting to see what they come up with.
“I think he’s got a bit of a fan base, it really has gone through the roof within such a short period of time.
“We’re trying to get it out at the end of April – people’s shouldn’t have too long to wait!”