TWO cheques have been presented to charities after a ‘Life Saving Day’ raised £1,000.

The Post has previously reported on the fundraising event, which was held on Sunday, January 24, at Morwenstow Community Centre. More than 100 people attended, where they learnt about CPR, defibrilliators and first aid.

The event was organised by Sharon Olde, from Morwenstow, who wanted to highlight the importance of first aid knowledge after her son, Brad, had a cardiac arrest last year.

Brad, 21, had been out on his nightly run last May to up his fitness levels, as he was preparing for a fitness test to enable him to go into the Royal Navy last summer as a Hydrographic, Oceangraphic, Geographical Specialist.

Brad had stopped breathing, and Mrs Olde described it as a ‘miracle’ that neighbour Wendy Cook saw Brad collapsed on the road, alerted Sharon’s husband Charlie, and then another neighbour, Will Massingale, a trained coastguard, passed by, and applied CPR.

He was able to tell Wendy, who was on the phone to the ambulance service, the severity of Brad’s injury.

Brad was attended by a paramedic crew, luckily in the area at the time, who used a defibrillator, before Brad was airlifted to Derriford Hospital.

Brad was in the intensive care unit for three weeks, in an induced coma, and doctors told Mr and Mrs Olde that he had a hypoxic brain injury.

In the third week he responded to a question asked by the nurse, he was then able to be moved to a ward in Derriford and had to learn to walk, talk and feed himself again.

He also underwent surgery and has an ICD fitted in case he has any further cardiac arrests.

Brad was in hospital for four months receiving rehabilitation, and was able to return home in September.

Mrs Olde said: “He continues to have outside therapy and although it is a long journey to recovery we have got our Bradley back more than we ever initially imagined.”

The ‘Save a Life’ fundraiser was held in aid of Devon Air Ambulance and Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

On March 13 a cheque was presented to Brenda Luckett, for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), who are the trustees of the Martyn Luckett Memorial Trust.

The second cheque of £500 was presented on March 17 to Devon Air Ambulance at an invited open day.