A stroke of luck

We all know that chance otherwise known as luck plays a huge role in our survival. The subject has fascinated me quite a bit since my SCA and I’ve purchased a number of books to read on the subject, but because of problems with lack of concentration and focus I’ve struggled to really read very much until recently. A couple of weeks ago I decided to delve into one of those books, appropriately called “Luck”, by ex-professional England cricketer and now writer Ed Smith.

It’s a good read, but my attention was really piqued in one chapter as it featured a story about cardiac arrest that happened to a guy he knew at a party in London.

It was an interesting account of someone who seemed unlikely to experience something like a cardiac arrest and of course a lucky set of circumstances led to him surviving.  The story stuck in my mind but I didn’t think much more of it until just now.

I finished the book a short while ago and was just browsing through the acknowledgements and a name stuck out and made me think. It wasn’t an unusual name, or a well known one, just one that made me think I’ve seen that recently.

When you request to join the group you are asked to complete 3 questions, this is because we want to keep the group focused to it’s raison d’être and we often reject people who don’t answer the questions.

That name in the book was one of the ones I had rejected recently! Was it a co-incidence on the name, I mean I have a fairly unusual surname but I know there are quite a few others who share my name exactly, or was it really him?

Unfortunately there was scant info on his profile and so I couldn’t make any further deductions so I sent him a message. Usually in Facebook if you send a direct message to someone who is not a “friend” the message will sit in their unsolicited inbox and in my experience never get read.

So, primed with failure in mind I also fired off a tweet to Ed Smiths twitter account in the hope he might be able to fill in the blanks. I’d barely finished typing the tweet and to my surprise there was a sweet ping to notify me that I had received a new message. Aghast, I looked at who it was from, yes, the person who I had just sent the message to.  He soon confirmed that he was in fact the Andrew in the book and was a good friend of Ed’s!

Now, howzat (sic) for co-incidence or good luck if you like!

Paul Swindell

After our first meet-up in February 2015, I realised I was not alone. It was the first time since my cardiac arrest the previous year that I had spoken face-to-face with someone who had experienced what I had. This was also true for my wife, who also happened to be my lifesaver. From that meet-up, the idea of SCA UK was born. Since then, we have achieved a considerable amount, primarily providing information, resources and support to others in a similar situation but also raising the profile of survivorship and the need for better post-discharge care. We are starting to get traction in this, and with the formation of the charity, I genuinely believe we have a bright future ahead and will make a significant difference in the lives of many who join our ranks.