Grateful Amy taking on a mammoth March challenge
Most people remember Friday, March 20, 2020, as the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson shut the pubs.
But Amy Donalson will always remember it as the night she found herself in the position no-one wants to find themselves in – doing CPR on her fiancé Lee Stephenson.
One year on, the 28-yearold has set herself the challenge of running, walking and cycling 1,079km this month. This is a kilometre for every CPR call received by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) in 2020.
She and Lee are hoping to help NEAS’ Charitable Fund install a defibrillator in the Grangetown area of Sunderland, where Lee grew up, in the hope of helping save someone else’s life.
Lee suffered a cardiac arrest at their home in Gosforth after believing the chest pains he had been experiencing all day could not possibly be a heart attack due to him being just 31 years old.
Amy found herself calling 999 and putting the first aid skills she had learned at work into practice, desperately trying to save his life with the help of 999 health advisor Bradley Sanderson whilst two ambulance crews were en-route.
Lee is now making a steady recovery and will be supporting Amy on her mammoth challenge as much as his doctors will allow.
She said: “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 Hospital.
“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 life-saving CPR in 2020, one of which was mine, I thought this would be a nice way to say thank you.
“The 1,079km works out to be about 34km a day, so it’s certainly going to be a challenge – especially since I haven’t been on a bike in years.”
To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/1079kmfor1079 calls