By Katherine Turner
This April women’s health coach and personal trainer, Emma Houldsworth found herself in a situation where the odds were stacked against her.
Out walking her dog, Emma felt the sudden need to sit down. Emma’s heart stopped beating, she stopped breathing and was in cardiac arrest.
Outside of a hospital environment fewer than 8% of patients would normally survive. Luckily for Emma, her partner knew how to administer CPR, a defibrillator was nearby and the passerby who was able to help was a trained nurse.
Emma has since made a full recovery and wants to raise funds for CPR training and new defibrillators in the local community.
She shared on her social media pages: “One moment I was running my business, going to the gym and busy being a mum and the next thing my heart stopped. If my partner had not known CPR or there hadn’t been a defibrillator nearby I wouldn’t be here today.
“There’s a common misconception that heart problems only affect older people or those that are unhealthy. When there is an issue with the heart’s electrical signals, this can happen to anybody at any age.”
The cause is very important to Emma, and the charity raffle is now live with 71 prizes donated and has been supported by all of her clients.
One of her clients, Meg Coleman also of Bramley, told WLD: “It’s important to us to help raise funds because of what Emma went through with her cardiac arrest, if it hadn’t been for the nearby defibrillator and the help of her partner who is trained in CPR she potentially wouldn’t have survived.
“We want to make sure we do all we can to spread awareness, raise money for defibrillators and fund some CPR training too.
“I’ve known Emma since February last year. She genuinely cares about her clients rather than just seeing it as just a job, she puts her all into it. She’s such a lovely woman and I’ve honestly never felt so comfortable around someone so quickly, which is why I want to support this raffle.”
Last year Emma and her clients raised £3,000 for Cancer Research and hope to raise the same amount again. This could fund CPR training for 75 local people and one new defibrillator.
Emma’s raffle can be found here.
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