Hallam FC sports therapist helps save football official who collapsed

A sports therapist has been praised for helping to resuscitate a linesman who collapsed during a football match.

Shannon Brooks used CPR and a defibrillator after Andrew Jarvis suffered a suspected heart attack during a match between Hallam FC and Rainworth MWFC in Mansfield.

Following the game Hallam FC said Mr Jarvis was "stable in hospital".

Ms Brooks, from Worksop, said she believed "every sports club in every village" should have a defibrillator.

The 26-year-old was one of two people who rushed to help Mr Jarvis when he collapsed at Rainworth's ground on Saturday shortly before the second-half was due to begin.

"I called for a defib straight away," she said.

"We started with chest compressions and then, as soon as the defib arrived, we placed the defib on his chest and then started the machine."

Ms Brooks, who joined Sheffield's Hallam FC in March 2020, said Mr Jarvis "came round after a few shots" from the device.

"To know that he's been able to see and speak to his family again, because no-one should go to a football game and never go home, so to me, that was the biggest reward ever."

Hallam FC, who play in Division One of the Northern Counties East Football League, said Mr Jarvis' son had thanked Ms Brooks, the players and both teams' medical staff for their "quick thinking and brave actions".

Ms Brooks is now hoping to raise money to purchase defibrillators for non-league clubs.

Writing on her online fundraising page she said she was "on a mission" to buy as many as possible after "witnessing first hand the difference having access to a defibrillator can make in saving someone's life".

The FA said it believed about 90% of the smaller National League clubs had defibrillators on- site while "lower levels of the football pyramid might share community facilities across a number of different sports or activities".

The National League System operates directly below the English Football League, providing the structure for 57 leagues featuring a total of 84 divisions.

Fast use of a defibrillator - which gives a high-energy electric shock to the heart - can increase survival rates by up to 70%.

Footballer Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark's opening game at Euro 2020 and and needed to be resuscitated with a defibrillator.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].