A YOUNG first aider has told for the first time how she battled to save a man’s life using a defibrillator. Hannah Paish still remembers the day she tried to shock Paul Thompson back to life when he collapsed while playing football near her home.

The 21-year-old, from Witney, was not able to save him, but now the St John Ambulance volunteer will skydive from 10,000ft to raise money to pay for first aid training that could help others in that situation.

Miss Paish said: “I still remember what colour his eyes were and what he looked like on the field.

“He was the first proper cardiac arrest I had been to and had to use a defibrillator on.

“It’s still stuck in my mind and I think about it quite often.”

Aston resident Mr Thompson, 38, collapsed while training with Witney Royals Football Club in Burwell Meadow on July 17, 2012.

Miss Paish, who lives next to the ground, heard the commotion from teammates and ran out to help.

She was looking after one of her charity’s defibrillators overnight and used it on Mr Thompson, who was in cardiac arrest, to try shock his heart back to life.

He was later pronounced dead in an ambulance taking him to hospital.

An inquest recorded that Mr Thompson, who had a daughter and three step-children with wife Nikki Rouse-Thompson, had two minor heart valve abnormalities, which contributed to his death.

Former Henry Box School pupil Miss Paish said: “I was at home and my dad noticed there was something going on in the field, with footballers running around.

“I went outside and one of the players asked me if I had seen an ambulance.

“I was lucky I had all the equipment in the back of my car and went straight to him.

“He was already on the ground so I gave him a shock with my defibrillator and set up oxygen.

“It’s all a bit of a blur because it was the first time I had to use my skills like that in a real situation.

“The community first response team turned up and took the lead. I got a phone call that evening saying he had passed away. It was very sad.”

Miss Paish, a part-time support worker for adults with learning difficulties, hopes to raise £10,000 from her tandem skydive for St John Ambulance in Maidstone, Kent, on Sunday.

She has volunteered there for five years and is now West Oxfordshire adult unit manager in Witney.

Miss Paish said: “I’m doing the skydive so more first aid can be taught to the public because it’s very important.

“Basic first aid is something all adults and children should know because, given the example of Paul Thompson, you never know when you’re going to use it.

“You are theoretically the difference between a life lost and a life saved.”

Following his death, Mrs Rouse-Thompson set up the Legacy for a Legend charity with her husband’s friend Steve Hawkins in November 2012 and has raised £12,000.

Last month she installed the first of six defibrillators at West Oxfordshire sports grounds in Burwell Meadow.

As previously reported in the Oxford Mail South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) divisional responder manager Dick Tracey recently appealed in the newspaper for an extra 200 defibrillators to be installed across the county.

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