This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has urged people to get CPR training after revealing it once helped him save his dad’s life.
The 56-year-old said his late dad, Brian, could have had his life cut short by more than two decades if Phil hadn’t been able to resuscitate him following a heart attack.
Speaking about how CPR can be lifesaving, Phil said on Monday’s This Morning: “I’ve done it myself. My dad had a heart attack and died in front of us on the carpet.
“I haven’t trained at all but what I had seen on the telly worked. He was alive for another 25 years.”
Phil was 22-years-old at the time and his co-host Holly Willoughby told him he had given “the gift of life” with his swift actions. Phil replied: ” Nothing feels better.”
His father went on to recover and lived for another 25 years, passing away in May 2008.
Phil’s revelation came as he and co-host Holly Willoughby spoke to firefighter Stefan Taylor about how he saved a toddler’s life when on holiday in Turkey.
The tot was pulled lifeless from a pool and Stefan went “straight from holiday mode to CPR mode” to help him.
By giving the child mouth to mouth and chest compressions he had been taught via his firefighter training, Stefan was able to save the boy’s life.
He encouraged others to undertake a course, saying even having basic skills could make a difference one day.
This Morning’s Dr Ranj agreed as he appeared on the show to demonstrate how to do CPR.
He pointed out: “Everyone can be a lifesaver with basic skills. Drowning is the biggest accidental killer of under 15s worldwide, and third biggest in the UK. If you get CPR in in 10 minutes, there’s 70 percent chance that child will survive.”
Phil said he was so glad he knew what to do when his father was in trouble, as it meant they got many more years with him.
Phil was devastated when his father died ten years ago and has previously spoken of his grief on This Morning.
He said: “When my dad died I was utterly shattered.”
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Phillip added that a friend helped him come to terms with what had happened by telling him, “you’re really lucky.”
“And I said, ‘Why am I really lucky?'” Phil recalled. “And he said, ‘You’re really lucky because when my dad died I didn’t feel very much at all and I wish I felt the pain that you feel, as it means that that way, I would have had the relationship that you had with your dad.”
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