A martial arts teacher who collapsed while out on a run is raising money to buy more of the machines that saved his life.

Donna Clarke was running in Park South with her partner John Newman when he suffered a cardiac arrest. They were not far from their home in Queens Drive.

An ambulance was called and within minutes the fit 43-year-old was brought back to life by a defibrillator and taken to hospital.

Donna, 44, said: “Before all this happened, I knew a defibrillator as something that would be on the wall and you saw them around, but didn’t realise how important they are.

"They are literally a lifesaver, the quicker you use them, the higher the chance of survival.”

Donna said: “We went out for a run and John fell, I thought he had tripped. He got up and said he was fine, but fell again and as he went down he was acting strange.

“As I was on the phone to the ambulance, someone I knew came over and helped me do CPR. She did compressions on the chest whilst I did mouth to mouth.

“I can’t thank the people enough,” she said. “While I was on the phone, an off duty officer was on the phone and helped with CPR. The community was brilliant, they didn’t just walk past.

“The defibrillator was used on him and he was in a coma for a few days. Luckily when he came out, he was okay. If it wasn’t for the defibrillator, John wouldn’t be here now.”

John said: “I’m so lucky that the circumstances were what they were. I was running with someone, I was near the ambulance station and they came within three minutes, the circumstances were definitely with me.

“The week prior I had been running on my own instead, I was down backroads and where people weren’t around, I’m just fortunate to be here.”

The couple have raised enough money for one defibrillator and it’s already been put up at John’s studio at Phoenix Martial Arts & Fitness.

The event on July 25 will raise money to place another defibrillator within the community. And John said the couple are planning on educating the public on the significance of the machines. “We’re trying to get first-aid courses running because CPR alone won’t save lives.

“It won’t restart the heart, the only thing that will is the use of a defibrillator,” he said. “The timeframe is so important, having them out in the communities and in the local areas, we’re trying to do all we can to get them out there.

“We’ve earmarked a place in Stratton where there isn’t one locally, that’s the plan for the next one and then we’ll look at the third one.

“The focus of the event is to raise money so please bring some on the day, but it’s also about getting people together. With restrictions being lifted, people can come together and just have a fun day.”

The couple held a training course on how to use a defibrillator for more than 20 adults and children on May 25.

The event is on July 25 at Phoenix Martial Arts & Fitness, Unit 8, Transfer Bridge Industrial Estate from 10am to 3pm, with ninja star throwing, face painting, food stalls and a tournament of videogame series Tekken.