A young man who was alerted to a footballer who was in cardiac arrest managed to revive him three times before paramedics arrived on scene. "The odds were not great," said 19-year-old Joshua Warwick, who administered CPR on a teenager of the same age, after the footballer had collapsed while playing at Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Bilborough.
Mr Warwick, who was 18 at the time, performed the emergency CPR on fellow teenager Kye Wilson, who had collapsed while playing football in October of last year. With some help the football coach from Sneinton used an available defibrillator to bring Mr Wilson back three times.
Recalling what happened, Mr Warwick said: "Someone came over saying a player was in trouble and not well. So I went over and Mr Wilson was not breathing.
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"I had learned CPR through training courses because I had been doing youth work since I was 16. The odds were not great. We brought him back three times and the ambulance service brought him back again. So four times. At one point they were on about stopping.
"It was quite scary. At the time I was the same age as Kye and you do not think about it in the moment but it affected me for quite a while because I play football and coach football. Football is my life. To see someone the same age as me die while playing football is not great."
To honour Mr Warwick for his actions, he has been named the national winner of the prestigious Grassroots Rising Star of the Year Award from England Football and McDonald’s Grassroots Football Awards. The ceremony was hosted at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium.
The annual awards celebrate people who go above and beyond for the grassroots game. Judges hailed Mr Warwick and described him as "resilient, self-sufficient and above all a true inspiration to the whole community".
As an extra reward the 19-year-old, who is a Nottingham Forest fan, had a surprise visit from Reds defender Steve Cook. It's a story close to the experienced centre half's heart with his dad having suffered a cardiac arrest before Forest played Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in May. In a powerful tweet after the match, Cook, who joined the Reds from Bournemouth, thanked the paramedics for saving the life of his dad.
In a tweet, Cook, who played a major role in helping Forest reach promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, wrote: "After hearing Josh's story and knowing the topic is close to me, I had to meet this amazing young man. The courage and dedication of Josh and plenty of volunteers up and down this country amazes me. They truly are the life blood of grassroots football."
Cook handed the pair free tickets to the Reds' first home game of the season against West Ham at the City Ground on Sunday, August 14.
Just 12 percent of people who suffer a cardiac arrest survive. Speaking of the incident, Mr Wilson said: "I feel very happy for him [winning the award] because I don't feel like him, or people in his position, get as much recognition as they deserve. Josh played a very big part in me still being here today."
Mr Warwick's work in deprived areas of Nottingham started when he approached local team Rossoneri FC, who play at Victoria Embankment in The Meadows, and formed an U18 team encouraging disadvantaged young people to join. He is currently working with the Nottinghamshire FA to develop training materials and to share his experience with fellow coaches.
He emphasised the need for more defibrillators in the community and Mr Warwick added: "People need to be made aware of it. Using people like Steve Cook to support awareness is great. Even if people just do a course to learn how to do CPR. I support five grassroots football teams and only one of them has a defibrillator available."
Former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown presented Mr Warwick with the award ahead of the FA Community Shield on July 30 between Liverpool and Manchester City. McDonald's ambassador Keown said: "Joshua is a true inspiration to the whole community and had a bright future ahead of him.
"That’s why I’m so proud to be here at the King Power stadium to honour these incredible winners. Joshua should be extremely proud of all of his accomplishments and I’m confident we will be seeing more from Joshua in the near future."
Sadly, there have been other high profile recent cases of young footballers from across Nottinghamshire who weren't as lucky as Mr Wilson. Samuel Akwasi was playing for FC Cavaliers U13s when he collapsed on The Forest Recreation Ground in May and died at the age of 13. West Bridgford Colts player Dylan Rich died aged 17 after a medical emergency during an FA youth cup game last September.
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