A Hove mother of seven is able to look forward to seeing her eldest son get married this year thanks to the life-saving actions of a team of South East Coast Ambulance (SECAmb) clinicians.

Sonja McGovern, now 50-years-old, and her husband, Mick, visited SECAmb’s Brighton Make Ready Centre recently to meet some of the clinicians who helped save her life three years ago when she suffered a cardiac arrest at their home in Hove.

With fewer than one in 10 patients in the UK surviving to 30 days after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, Sonja and Mick are encouraging as many people as possible to learn CPR which could save a life.

Sonja was sitting at home on 18 February 2022, when she suddenly became unresponsive. Mick jumped into action, giving Sonja CPR and calling 999 for help.

At the heartfelt reunion, Sonja and Mick met Paramedic, Hannah Norden, who was one of the first ambulance crew members on scene and who delivered two life-saving shocks with a defibrillator as well as Paramedics, Christopher Jones, Michael Bird and Operational Team Leader, (OTL), Rebecca Dawes, who arrived shortly after to assist with the team successfully resuscitating Sonja. Sonja was taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital where she spent a further seven days, including two in an induced coma in intensive care.

Sonja said: “This has given me such a different perspective on life, and I really appreciate the small things now. I’m so thankful to everyone and that I’m still here with my family. Because of them, I’ve been able to celebrate my fiftieth birthday and I’m going to be able to see my eldest son get married this year.”

Paramedic Michael said: “I’ve being doing this for 10 years and it’s my first time meeting a survivor of cardiac arrest, so it was really special. It was wonderful to see how Sonja and Mick are both doing.”

Hannah added: “It’s important to recognise Mick’s fast response, giving Sonja CPR prior to us arriving. Without that, the outcome could have been very different as those minutes after a cardiac arrest are crucial. I was delighted to meet them both after this time and hear all the wonderful things they’ve managed to do as a family since.”

You can learn CPR in as little as 15 minutes for free with online resources available from the British Heart Foundation. To find out more click here.