Five minutes later one of the people in this photo 'died'
A man whose heart stopped for eight minutes while training for a marathon said it was the "luckiest run to die on."
Fitness instructor, Grant Williams, from Woolton, was training for the Manchester marathon on March 9, 2024, when his heart stopped for eight minutes. He was 11-miles into his 12-mile run when he suffered a cardiac arrest on Smithdown Road.
The group of eight people Grant had been training with didn't hesitate to start CPR. An off-duty nurse and doctor also happened to be walking past, and the 53-year-old had collapsed just across the street from a defibrillator, which all contributed to saving his life.
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Grant, who is fit and healthy, had been out for a run with members of his fitness class, NG-UP Active, when he suffered a cardiac arrest. He told the ECHO: "We were training every Saturday, it was just the Saturday before that we had done a 19 mile run.
"So, on March 9 we were only going to do a 12 mile route. We had just stopped to take a picture, we were about 11 miles in coming down Smithtown and then I just can't remember a thing.
"I had a cardiac arrest - your heart just stops and you don't feel or see anything - I [cardiac] arrested twice on the bottom of Smithtown Road and I can't remember falling, hearing voices, seeing anyone, I can't remember the CPR, or being shocked by the defibrillators. I was lucky that the group I was with started performing CPR straight away."
Luckily for him, doctor Melanie Hamilton had been cycling home from her night shift at Alder Hey Children's Hospital when she noticed a group of people standing around Grant, who was "fighting for his life", and sprung into action.
Melanie took over the CPR and brought Grant back around. But then he fell into a second cardiac arrest, thankfully a second off-duty doctor, who had been getting his haircut in a nearby barbers, rushed to help. The doctors used a defibrillator from a nearby Tesco to save his life.
Grant said: "The first doctor, called Mel, pulled up on her bike and carried on with the CPR, one of the group I was with called the ambulance and two of them went to Tesco on Greenbank to see if they had a defibrillator. When the defib came back there was another male doctor called Joe - who was getting his haircut in the barbers opposite - he took over from Mel as she was getting tired with the CPR compressions, and then the defibs went on me. At this point the ambulance came.
"I came round in the ambulance. They took me to hospital and stabilised me - they said I needed a quadruple heart bypass.
"You are just thinking through darkness and when you come round, you are sedated and relaxed, it only sinks in when you start getting all the messages asking how you are or what they can do for you. And, the recovery after the operation isn't very pleasant, especially when you want to be out training but, I looked at it like another challenge."
Grant was discharged from hospital on March 31 and has already started light training. He plans to run the Newport marathon in Wales next year to raise money for the Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, who helped him in his recovery. He has also set out to raise awareness for the importance of CPR training and defibrillators.
He said: "The gym I do my fitness classes at, The Training Station in Wavertree, have bought a defibrillator for the gym now and two of the members have put on a defib and CPR training class for people to raise awareness and show people how to use them.
"From first hand experience I think they [defibrillators] should be in every gym and every commercial place, because they are so so important."
Grant added: "I have started back running and training as well, we are going to do the Newport marathon in my hometown. I am far behind again now and I need to build up to it. I met the doctors who saved me and they have now signed up to run the marathon with us next year, there is about 40 people from my gym doing it.
"We have been doing a lot of fundraising as well, we raised £900 in one night and have organised a black tie event in November which we hope to raise up to £7,000 from. We are blessed in Liverpool with the hospitals we have, the Heart & Chest Hospital have been phenomenal and money will be going back to them."
Grant is on his way to making a full recovery and wants to pay a special thanks to those who have contributed to saving his life, he said: "It's so good to get back out. I am a strong person mentally but when you go from training twice a day to your heart stopping you think oh my god. For me it [the cardiac arrest] was hereditary - my dad had a heart attack at 40 and 43 - but they [the doctors] said from being actively fit I have prolonged the cardiac arrest by about ten years. It's so important people keep physically fit, whether it is just walking.
"As runs go it is the luckiest run to die on ever, because there was a defib across the road, doctors nearby and a group with me who started CPR. It was so lucky, I thank my lucky stars that I'm here.
"I want to thank the runners who were out with me, the two doctors who turned up to help, and the Heart & Chest Hospital because they are so good at what they do. There is such an importance of CPR training and having defibs there."
Grant is also appealing to any small businesses who want to donate to his black tie event that he is hosting this November to contact his Instagram.
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