I was dead - Watch Sunderland man recall coming back for the brink and donating £2,000 for community defibrillators

Antony, from Shiney Row, knows better the anyone the lifesaving difference a defibrillator can make after suffering a cardiac arrest whilst swimming in the sea at Roker.

He said: “I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been administered a defibrillator. I was dead for a total of 10 minutes and the shocks from the defibrillator restarted my heart and got it back into the correct rhythm. It really was the difference between life and death.”

Recalling that fateful day on July 2, 2022, Antony, 55, explained he was swimming in the North Sea in his wetsuit as part of his training for an upcoming triathlon.

He said: “It was a lovely summers day and we were about 100m out from the beach. We had stopped for a rest and I had inflated my float and we were just chatting.

“I remember putting my head back in the water and felt the cold chill on my neck and that’s the last thing I remember. My friend told me he had been continuing to talk to me and thought I wasn’t responding as I was just chilling out.

“After 20 seconds of me not answering he realised something was wrong. When he came across he later said my eyes were just staring upwards. I was unresponsive and effectively dead.”

Antony’s friend immediately began to swim him ashore and it’s at this point an amazing but unlikely chain of fateful events unravelled which allowed Antony to be brought back from the brink.

He said: “There were two men on the beach who had just done CPR training the day before. They helped to pull me up the beach and started to administer CPR.

“At the same time there were two nurses walking along the promenade. One ran to my assistance and called an ambulance whilst the other went to the Adventure Sunderland centre, where they knew there was a defibrillator.”

The two nurses stripped back Antony’s wetsuit and hooked up the defibrillator to administer the potentially lifesaving shocks.

Antony said: “I remember initially coming round and asking my mate what had happened and he said ‘you’ve had a bit of a funny turn’.

“At that point I lost consciousness again as my heart still hadn’t returned to a normal rhythm. I was shocked again, and this time it did return my heart to a normal rhythm.”

Antony was then taken by air ambulance to hospital where he was stabilised and later had a defibrillator implanted in his chest.

He added: “Without having the right people in the right place at the right time, and knowing where to access a defibrillator and knowing how to use it and administer CPR, then I wouldn’t be here today.”

After leaving hospital, Antony was made aware by a friend of the quest of Lesley Anne Baker, who despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer had made it her mission to see a community defibrillator installed in every one of Washington’s 18 villages.

Tragically Lesley passed away on May 5, 2022.

She had seen seven defibrillators installed, and after her passing her family and friends, including Antony, have continued her mission by holding an annual walk in memory of Lesley and to raise vital funds to purchase the remaining pieces of lifesaving equipment.

And yesterday (June 16) Lesley’s mission was completed and the final defibrillator was installed outside Washington Primary Care Centre, thanks to a £2,000 donation from Antony.

Former prison officer Antony explained: “I recently left the prison service but before I left I had raised £28,000 for the cancer charity Daft as a Brush.

“Because I had raised so much, I was awarded Fundraiser of the Year and received £2,000 which I could donate to charity.

“I donated the money to Lesley’s cause, with £1,600 paying for the defibrillator being installed here and £400 went towards one of the earlier defibrillators.

“It is a great feeling to help Lesley complete her mission. Part of my way of saying thanks to those who saved my life is to give something back - and what better way than purchasing one of the defibrillators which saved my life.

“They really are the difference between life and death.”