'It saved my life': Tom Lockyer in urgent plea to football fans to learn lifesaving skill

Tom Lockyer and Ian Holloway are encouraging football fans to spend 15 minutes during December to learn CPR using the BHF’s RevivR tool and potentially help save a life.

Bristol Rovers defender Tom Lockyer and Swindon Town manager Ian Holloway have teamed up ahead of this Saturday’s League Two clash to call on football supporters across the country to learn lifesaving CPR, as part of Sky Bet’s and the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign, with the support of the EFL.

Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest twice on the pitch for Luton Town during 2023, with his heart stopping for almost three minutes during the Hatters’ Premier League match against AFC Bournemouth in December 2023.

He was saved by the on-site medical team and paramedics at the Vitality Stadium, who delivered immediate CPR and a life-saving defibrillator shock.

Meanwhile, Holloway lost his father to a cardiac arrest in his early 20s, and both called on supporters across England to spend 15 minutes during December to learn CPR using the BHF’s RevivR tool and potentially help save a life.

When speaking to Bristol Live, Lockyer, who is an Every Minute Matters campaign ambassador, said: “Yeah, look, 40,000 people each year will have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and less than one in 10 will survive, and I think those stats are staggering. That's why we're doing this campaign. And I think purely those odds are what they are, because not enough people know CPR, not enough people know what to do in a highly distressing situation.

“And the sad reality is 80% of those will happen at home, so it'll be a family member, it'll be a loved one, it'll be a relative or whatever it is and you'll have to step up in that situation and sadly not enough people know what to do.”

Research from Sky Bet and the BHF has shown that over 20 million people are expected to tune into an average of 765 minutes of live football this December. Also, eight out of 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen at home, making CPR knowledge critical. The message will run across perimeter boards and matchday programmes in all 196 EFL games taking place this month.

When asked about the campaign, Holloway said: “I lost my dad to cardiac arrest in 1987. In fact, the day he died I played in a match for Bristol Rovers, so it feels like a full circle moment speaking to Tom as he makes his return at the club.

“My Dad was my hero, and like many people who have lost loved ones to cardiac arrest, I wish I‘d had more of a chance to tell him how I felt about him and how much he’d influenced my life.

“I think the Sky Bet and BHF Every Minute Matters campaign is so important. The message I’d like to get out to football fans is simple - if you learn CPR this Christmas, you can potentially help save a life in the future, and that’s statistically likely to be a close family member or friend. And it’s not just one life that’s being saved - it’s the lives of everyone around them and stopping the heartbreak they will go through.”

Before the game between Rovers and Swindon, broadcast on Sky Sports+ at 12:30pm, both sets of players will warm-up in Every Minute Matters campaign t-shirts. Meanwhile, Sky TV will encourage fans to follow the on-screen QR code to learn how to perform CPR.

When asked about why football fans should make the time to learn CPR this Christmas, Lockyer added: “So that's why part of this campaign now is we're asking football fans while you're at home, with your family, over Christmas and you're together and you're having your Sunday dinner or you're watching the football, have the conversation, would you know what to do if I was to go over now?

“Would you be comfortable administering CPR until the nearest defib or the paramedics got here and if the answer is no, then, look, there's nothing wrong with that, but you can change that. You can log on to the British Heart Foundation website, you can search for a RevivR on there, you can learn CPR in 15 minutes, and you can potentially save a life.”