Mila Lockyer is almost crawling.
You can sense the paternal pride in dad Tom’s voice when he speaks about his seven-month-old daughter, who is “rocking back and forth” at a great rate as she prepares for her first big milestone.
“You can’t take your eyes off her,” he says. “There’s a lot of wobbling at the moment, a lot of rocking back and forth, she’s almost there with the crawling.”
Then he pauses before chuckling. “Everybody says there’s carnage to come after that, isn’t there?”
The scene of parental bliss is instantly recognisable, but the rest of Lockyer’s story is anything but. It is just nine months since he was playing in a Premier League match for Luton Town and, when he jogged lightly towards the centre circle, got a sudden feeling of being “really lightheaded”.
The next time Lockyer opened his eyes he saw “visibly panicked” doctors, physios and paramedics working furiously to save his life after he’d had a sudden cardiac arrest on the pitch. His heart had stopped for almost three minutes.
For a split second, Lockyer couldn’t speak or respond to them increasingly desperate questions.
“I knew instantly that something serious had happened,” he says.
“I tried to respond to them, they were asking me how I was and I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. I remember that moment so well.
“It was probably only a few seconds but it felt like a good few minutes and I remember really well feeling in that moment like ‘I could be dying here’.
“It’s not a nice feeling and sometimes, when I’m playing with Mila, I do get a bit sad because I think what it’d be like for her growing up without a dad because that’s very nearly what happened.
“My girlfriend (Taylor) was seven months pregnant at the time so I see myself as one of the lucky ones. I’m only here because my heroes – those people that saved my life that day – knew what to do.”
That sense of gratitude is why Lockyer was at Leeds United’s Thorp Arch training ground alongside his friend and international teammate Ethan Ampadu on Wednesday. He is spearheading a joint campaign by Sky Bet, the EFL and the British Heart Foundation to encourage supporters to learn CPR.
“45 per cent of football fans in a recent survey said they wouldn’t feel comfortable stepping up and performing CPR on someone so we’re trying to change that. I’m proof that it’s literally a lifesaver,” he says.
The facts Lockyer has learned by rote are no less stark for repetition: there are 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests a year and less than one in 10 survives. That number would rise dramatically if people knew how to perform CPR.
“I was lucky that my heroes were able to detach any emotion from it,” Lockyer says.
“Speaking to our physio and doctors and they said the hardest thing was seeing me dead and knowing me as a person.
“That can be really hard so that’s why we’re pushing this message – if this happens to someone who you know and love you need to know what to do because this thing doesn’t discriminate.
“I had a message from someone who had an 18-month daughter and I just thought ‘How would you react in that situation if you didn’t know what to do?’”
Being among footballers again at Thorp Arch feels bittersweet for Lockyer, who is still uncertain about whether he’ll ever play again.
He admits there have been some “dark days” in his recovery and said last year that he’s “at peace” if he does need to hang up his boots. He’s a glass half full person, grateful to still be here and for the fact that he got to spend “every day” of Mila’s first three months with her.
After the incident he had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) similar to the one used by Christian Eriksen fitted to regulate his abnormal heart. It allows him to exercise, and he’s resumed training with Luton.
“I didn’t think I’d miss it quite as much as I did,” he says.
“It’s really nice to be back in the building, just being around the lads again. I’ve been with Ethan at the Leeds training ground and there’s a few lads messing around and it’s great to see the spirt they’ve got. It’s what we’ve got at Luton and it’s really nice to be around them and amongst them.
“I’m just training at the minute. We’ll see how far I can get. Even if I can’t get back on the pitch I know what I’m doing here, pushing this good message.”
And he is undoubtedly doing good. The campaign is a vital one and he’s a born communicator. Media work is one of his options if football isn’t possible and he’d be good at it.
Lockyer feels he’s finally come to terms with what happened now. He’s able to watch the footage back – “It’s surreal and actually quite cool to see how quickly my heroes sprung into action,” he says – and there’s no sense of anger or bitterness that it happened to him.
“I’m still here, I’m still breathing and I’m really happy. It has been quite tough at times but I’m on the road up now,” he says. It is a message we could all learn from.
To mark World Heart Day the EFL, British Heart Foundation and Sky Bet are teaming up to urge supporters of all 72 EFL clubs to unite behind the Every Minute Matters campaign and learn lifesaving CPR in a dedicated weekend of awareness.
As part of the campaign Sky Bet will donate £1,000 for every goal scored this weekend.
You can learn CPR in just 15 minutes on the BHF website here bhf.org.uk/revivr
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