All Star Saved My Life

The 2023 Allstars has come to an end after the weekend at the Vindico Arena in Cardiff.

It has been a record year again for fundraising and awareness and more on that will follow with the usual stories of new friendships and old friendships enjoying time together again.

This year we introduced a new award the Scarlett Thomas award for a person that embodied the weekend, but we never could foresee what happened on Saturday afternoon, but in times of need a group of Allstars stepped up to save the life of a fellow Allstar.

The on ice actions of Rick Strang, Andy Way, Rachel Alexander, Matt Smale, Chris McNally, Michael McCruddon, Gemma Kellond, Ricky Rodgers, Sam Motton, Jordan Phipps & Ash Taylor working so quickly as a team meant that a 10% chance of survival was outcome and Craig is still with us.

Also, the actions of people off the ice like James Ions who retrieved the defibrillator as quickly as possible and getting it to the team, also those stopping traffic outside (Adrian Rapps, Matt Rose & others) meaning the emergency teams could get into the arena as quickly as they did with key information. For their actions that have come to light they have been added to the award.  There were others that made sure the arena was emptied quickly to make sure Craig had respect as treatment was ongoing and we thank everyone for their understanding during that time.

To hear Craig was recovering well in the evening is the news we all wanted to hear and his Craigs wife Rosea was able to get to Cardiff with support of all the teams to be with him.

Rosea attended the event on Sunday to thank all the people involved and Craig was able to Face Time everyone as the award was handed to the on-ice team.

We will be announcing a fundraising drive soon to purchase a Defibrillator for the event and another for the Arena. Without this and the quick actions the story would have been so deferent and as Craigs mother has messaged to say, “Without you I would have lost him, I am so proud of you and so glad you were all there and you worked so quickly on him to get him back to us”.

We also send out best wishes to Archie Nelson & Steve Moria for quick recoveries and again thank you to Rick Strang for making sure they were ok.

This in the end is a good news story but if you are out and especially of doing physical exercise makes sure someone knows where the nearest Defibrillator is and if you have any chest pains, pins and needles in arms etc check yourself checked out.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators/national-defibrillator-network-the-circuit

As the new song goes. “Last Night An All-Star Saved Your Live” let all be All-stars and help use raise the money required to make sure we always have that help on hand.