Donation of pitch side defibrillators, following match officials sudden cardiac arrest during football match!

Thanks to Martin and Jane, 2 new pitch side defibrillators are now in place at Desborough Town FC and Belstone FC, following the sudden cardiac arrest of Martin, one of the match officials, at a previous match between the clubs. Players and physios from both clubs gave life saving CPR to Martin, while a player ran to fetch the nearest community accessible defibrillator. Thanks to those amazing people, Martin is here to tell his story...

“Hi, I am Martin Weedon a long serving Referee of some forty years plus, a would be footballer of limited ability who needed to continue involvement in the Sport I love when the time to finish playing arrived.

Anyway on the morning of Saturday 14th March I was undertaking a few gardening jobs. I had not been allocated a game for the afternoon but looked at some messages on my phone. Chris Geelan (Referees Secretary) was in need of a replacement assistant referee at Desborough Town, I volunteered my services as its only a couple of miles from my home.

Very fortunately for me he took me up on my offer.

I duly departed on the local bus as parking can be difficult and met up with my match colleagues.

Five minutes into the game I collapsed and of course have no recollection of the next twenty minutes or so.

I as we know now had a Cardiac Arrest. How fortunate was I to have Mitchell, Alan and Carl.

“Mitch” took control and administered CPR assisted by the other two guys whilst a AED (defibrillator) was sent for.

I believe I came round about the time East Midlands Ambulance Service arrived. Then blue lighted to Kettering General Hospital Casualty Department and then onward to the Cardio Department.

I spent seven days under their care and left with an Implanted Cardio Device with continued care plus MRI Scan and Potentially further Surgery to come.

Three things will stick with me.

1 Right Place at the Right Time (yes I could have been at home with no help in time).

2 Right Equipment.

3 Trained People to use that Equipment.

My wife has donated an AED to both Desborough Town and Belstone (the two teams playing on the day) via OurJay Foundation who have access to AED’s at COST PRICE, they can also help with CPR TRAINING and USE of the Defibrillator’s.

As I understand it there is also a QR Code that links to a short training video and even better it can be printed on football kit.”