A young Newton Aycliffe man's life was saved by seconds - and now his family is on a mission to ensure others across County Durham have access to the same life-saving defibrillators.
David Robinson, 21, collapsed without warning while walking in the Welsh countryside with his fiancée, Justyce Crossman. She performed CPR for 20 minutes, keeping him alive until emergency crews arrived.
Paramedics shocked his heart twice with a defibrator before airlifting him to hospital. He underwent open heart surgery after doctors discovered he had an extremely rare congenital heart defect called Anomalous Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery (ALCAPA).
David’s family are now supporting a charity which helps communities access defibrillators after his life was saved.
Mark Preston set up the Missed a Beat charity to fundraise, supply and maintain defibrillators across County Durham.
After hearing about David’s story, Mark contacted the family and arranged for a defibrillator to be installed at Sandringham Care Home in Bishop Auckland, where David’s mum Audrey works.
Within a week of the device being fitted, staff nearly had to activate it during an incident, highlighting the importance of having one readily available.
Mark said: "I spoke to Audrey and I think we will have a good partnership, I supplied the defibrillator for free for them but now she is fundraising to help install others across County Durham which means a lot to me and the charity.
"There is no legislation around defibrillators, both having one but also if you do have one to maintain it properly and that is what Missed a Beat is trying to work on."
The charity has now installed more than 80 community defibrillators and provided over 100 portable ones to sports clubs.
Any place that has a Missed a Beat defib also has a charity box to raise money towards maintaining the life saving equipment.
Audrey and staff at the care home have now begun fundraising to support the charity and help install more machines across the county.
She said: "We are doing a sponsored walk at the home for the month of May, as well as other fundraising ways such as raffles, and other things to go towards Missed a Beat.
"It is really important to us especially to have a defib in any place possible as they are not just for the old, it can happen to anyone, because it could have been a different story for us.
"We now want to use this to raise awareness on the fact it can happen to anyone, show the importance of CPR, and raise money to get more of the life-saving machines more readily available everywhere in the community."
David said he was proud to support the fundraising efforts and is continuing to recover from heart surgery.
He said: "I never expected it to happen to me and it can happen to anyone, anywhere so to have a defib fitted somewhere where there are highly vulnerable people but also just somewhere else in the community can only be a good thing as in an emergency every second can count."
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