Sunderland and Leeds players will warm up in specially designed Every Minute Matters t-shirts to help raise awareness of the importance of CPR ahead of Friday's Stadium of Light clash.
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00:00So Lee Stevenson has a very personal reason for backing this campaign. Talk us through
00:05what happened to you, Lee.
00:06Yeah, so it was a night that most people will remember for different reasons. It was March
00:132020, the night that the Prime Minister announced a national lockdown. I was having a takeaway
00:21with my wife, then fiancée at home, and I started to experience chest pains. Due to
00:30everything that was happening, I thought it was sort of anxiety or panic attacks, and
00:36with the underlying message that we weren't to overwhelm the NHS that night, I didn't
00:44really want to bother anybody, so I took myself to bed for an early night, hoping I'd feel
00:48better in the morning. From there, that's the last thing I remember, I turned the light
00:54off and that was it. 10, 15 minutes later, Amy came to bed and found that there was a
01:03really strange noise coming from me. She turned the light on, and my face was just completely
01:10blank and turning blue. She called 999, and the call hand at Bradley was excellent. He
01:18talked her through everything that she needed to do so she wasn't alone. She pulled me off
01:23the bed, started chest compressions, and performing CPR until the paramedics arrived, who then
01:30arrived about 10, 12 minutes later. They then took over and used a defib, which then restarted
01:40my heart. It took about 7 shocks for me to come back around. From there, I went on to
01:49the Freeman Hospital, spent 5 days in intensive care in the coronary care unit, and was eventually
01:57fitted with a stent, which opened up the blood flow back to my heart.
02:09Q. I understand Amy had been on a course training CPR?
02:12A. Yes, Amy had been on a first aid course a few years prior, but in all honesty, she didn't take it very seriously.
02:20You do tend to take those courses as a bit of a jolly break from the office, but thankfully,
02:30something remained in her memory from that course. She knew what she was doing, but again,
02:38the call handler was excellent that night. They told her to shout push on each compression, so they
02:45knew whether she was going too fast or too slow. They were fantastic that night as well.
02:55Q. How important is it for you that the club is backing this campaign?
02:59A. Massively. I've just been talking to Lee about his story. I got emotional just hearing it, but he
03:07explains an incredible story, just how important every minute counts. To be able to be a part of a message
03:16and that story, and trying to increase awareness is massively important. Family is one of the most
03:23important things in my life, and to have the opportunity to help with this campaign and spread
03:28awareness is very important to me.
03:30Q. I think this is quite an important part of your role here at the club, isn't it, this kind of public
03:34relations thing and leading on various things such as this?
03:37A. Yes, I think football is an incredible game and it brings many, many people together, but when there's
03:43an underlying message, and football, you've seen it in the past, and how it has thousands of people
03:52come in and you can increase awareness and spread a message through this wonderful game. I know how
03:58important it is to the club to be a part of this. We've had a former player here, Charlie Waiku, who's
04:05been through this as well. I think everybody's connected to someone, whether that's directly or indirectly,
04:13he's been involved with heart attacks and having to do CPR. So to increase awareness, to learn and educate
04:23yourself can only be important in this world. You might come across it and you might need it one day,
04:28and to have that education is huge.