A Chichester man who collapsed in cardiac arrest after completing Bognor Regis parkrun, is urging others to take the time to learn how to save a life after being reunited with the ambulance crew who came to his aid.

Former police officer, and experienced runner for Chichester Runners, David Knowles, 57, collapsed moments after crossing the finish line on 2 November this year.

Fellow runners and parkrun officials were quick to come to his rescue. Off-duty South East Coast Ambulance Service Paramedic, Alice Cox-Rusbridge, who had finished a few minutes ahead of David, literally sprang into action as she hurdled the finishing funnel tape and expertly led the successful resuscitation.

Together, the team began chest compressions and attached the parkrun’s defibrillator to David prior to the arrival of ambulance crews.

Dispatchers, Courtney Crozier and SeYuk Tseng, worked together to ensure ambulance crews were by David’s side within minutes with paramedics, Tom Pennicott and Liberty Johnson first to arrive at the scene. Following a shock from the defibrillator, David slowly started to regain consciousness.

The pair were joined by Paramedic, Keith Roskilly and Emergency Care Support Worker, Faith Stonelake as well as Critical Care Paramedic, Tim Reimoser and Operational Team Leader, Aleasha Kelly.

Together they stabilised David before he was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth where he spent 16 days receiving treatment which included being fitted with an internal cardiac defibrillator (ICD).

Now, David is keen to add his voice to the call for more people to learn first aid and vital life-saving CPR skills.

David said: “It was really great to meet with the team and thank them in person for everything they did. Without Alice and everyone else acting so quickly, it’s unlikely I would be here today. I really remember Tom’s voice on the journey to hospital being so calm and reassuring. On behalf of my whole family, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone.

“It was clear that it was a real team effort and shows the importance of bystander CPR. It’s absolutely essential, in my view, that in order to improve cardiac arrest survival rates, more people need to learn and be willing to perform CPR and I would urge everyone to take the time to learn how to save a life.”

Alice said: “It’s been lovely to get everyone together again and that David is doing so well. We both run for the same club so knew each other but we’ve now become good friends. Carrying out a resuscitation on a patient when you’re off duty is very different and you don’t have much time to think like you would en route to an incident. Everyone involved, right from the start, did a great job.”

Critical Care Paramedic, Tim Reimoser added: “It was a pleasure to meet with David and hear of his recovery. It really means a lot as sadly we see a lot of very sick people, many of whom don’t have such good outcomes. On behalf of the whole team, I wish David and his family all the very best for the future.”