A Farnham man who almost died when his heart stopped on the tennis court is calling for greater awareness of how to use defibrillators and where they are located.

Nick Walker and his partner were playing for Wrecclesham Tennis Club and were one set down in the men’s doubles against Busbridge in the Aldershot Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) league.

Nick was serving to stay in the match, but he stooped to pick up the ball and the next thing he knew he was in an ambulance on his way to Frimley Park Hospital.

“I felt a bit funny and as I bent down I keeled over,” Nick told The Herald.

“It turned out I had gone into cardiac arrest. I was not breathing and my heart had stopped.”

Nick’s teammates, led by Wrecclesham club captain Jim Pressly, immediately sought out the defibrillator device but it took a while to find it.

While Jim was shouting out to locate it, the person Nick now calls his ‘guardian angel’ appeared.

Nick continued: “Jen Cheeseman stepped forward and said that she was a cardiac nurse at Frimley.

“Jen took over the situation and having found the defibrillator, attained access, proceeded with CPR. She and Jim succeeded, thankfully, and bought me back.

“Apparently I was non-responsive for up to 10 minutes and completely blue.”

For the first 12 hours it wasn’t clear whether Nick would survive.

He said: “The consultant said I was ‘as ill as anyone can be’ and I spent two weeks in hospital.

“I’ve had an ICD fitted – basically a mini defibrillator and pacemaker which plugs into my heart which, should this happen again, will kick in and fix the arrhythmia.

“As the story unfolded and I got to hear what Jen done I realised how lucky I had been.

“I was moments from death. Had my team mates not responded as they did, had Jen not been there, I simply would not be here.”

Nick didn’t know about Jen until he was in recovery. He said: “After a couple of days in recovery a nurse came walking over to me.

“I knew who it was without being told: it was my guardian angel, Jen. We both burst into tears and had a wonderful hug.”

Nick is now out of hospital and is taking stock of his life. His experience has “100 per cent” changed the way he looks at things.

He said: “I have to take the stress out of my life and look after myself.

“I will go back to playing tennis and I want to promote awareness of cardiac arrest and the importance of defibrillators.

“A shout out to the LTA which insists there is a defibrillator at every tennis club, but people need to know where they are and how to use them.

“And I have such praise for the ambulance service, for the cardiac unit at Frimley Park, and for the NHS as a whole. There are so many negative stories about it, but I have nothing but praise.”