A HEART attack victim who owes his life to the actions of a quick-thinking work colleague has since devoted his time to raising money for research into heart disease.

Bob Taylor stopped breathing for half an hour after he suffered a cardiac arrest while at the Sussex headquarters of his employers, in January.

The emergency chest compressions performed by colleague, Vicky Allen, kept Mr Taylor alive for quarter of an hour until paramedics arrived at the scene. However it was a further 15 minutes before he defied the odds and began to breath again. Ms Allen knew what to do having seen TV adverts featuring former footballer and actor Vinnie Jones.

Since being brought back from the brink Mr Taylor, 54, from Fulford has now thrown himself into charity work for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) - even appearing alongside Vinne Jones, for a high profile poster campaign to support TV adverts.

He said: “Joining the BHF Fundraising Volunteer Committee is my way of saying thank you and giving something back. The BHF does a lot of stuff from research to everything else such as training in lifesaving skills.

“A volunteer’s time is as valuable as anything.”

He said: “I have done a bike ride for our local York branch and I raised more than £1200 for them.

“I was a marshall at the Santa jog on Knavesmire too on December 9.

“I’m now looking at organising a charity golf day for the BHF. I was even interviewed last month on the BBC breakfast show about my work.”

After his recovery from his heart attack, Mr Taylor is also keen to see people trained in life-saving skills such as CPR.

He said: “You administer CPR to keep the blood pumping. What you are trying to do is keep them alive before the paramedics arrive.

“The next part of the job is then getting them to A&E.”

To find out more on the work of the BHF, go to bhf.org.uk