A HERO husband who saved his wife’s life has thanked Rams RFC in Sonning for providing him vital CPR training.

Richard George, who has been married to Debby for 29 years, managed to bring his wife 'back from the dead' after performing CPR with his youngest son Cameron.

Richard relived the scary experence of realising his wife wasn't breathing.

He said: “It was 1.15am in the morning and I thought Debby was snoring, so I gave her a quick jab in the ribs.

“She didn’t react, so I turned the light on and her lips were going blue. At that point I jumped out of bed, pulled her onto the floor and started CPR.

“I was there just saying ‘come on, come on, come on, come on, you’ve got to breathe, you’ve got to breathe’.

“I screamed to the children, and they called the ambulance. After seven minutes Cameron took over and he carried on for three while I shook my arms to get ready to carry on again.

“Just under 15 minutes after the call, the paramedics arrived and they put the pads on and got her going again about 20 minutes later, so it was a long time she was out.”

Debby was rushed to Frimley Park Hospital and suffered another episode.

He continued: “She became a bit agitated, so they stuck the drugs in and then we got her downstairs, onto a stretcher, into the ambulance and away.

“Thankfully we got her to Frimley where she had another episode, but they fitted her with a temporary pacemaker for two or three days before fitting her with a full one.”

It was at the hospital the magnitude of what Richard, 56, and Cameron, 17, had done became clear last month, with the Intel Channel Director explaining: “One thing which set me off emotionally was when we got to the hospital and they said ‘well done, you’re a hero.’

“I said ‘I’m no hero, I just did what I had to do’, but they kept saying it so I went and had a look about cardiac arrest and only about 10 per cent of people actually survive it, so we were really, really lucky.”

He added: “I think it would have been easier with someone I didn’t know, but when you’re doing it with someone you love, it’s something else.

“It’s incredible when I was doing it, the training course really takes over and so my emotions weren’t so much of panic, but ‘this is what I’ve got to do’.

“I had done one with Paul Evans at Rams about 10 years ago, and it shows how great that training really was – without that, she simply wouldn’t be here.”

Debby, 49, who is also mum to 26-year-old Callum and Thomas, 23, is now recuperating at their Eversley home, and Richard urged people to take advantage of the training available.

He said: “When something like this happens, it really hits you and I’d really encourage everyone to do a course, because once you’ve got it, it’s there as part of life’s toolkit – you don’t forget it.

“If you can save one or two lives, it would be amazing.”