Francis Duku: Screening is crucial to keeping us all safe

There are more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year – the survival rate is less than one in ten.

This is my first of a new regular column for The Non-League Paper and I’m not sure any other will open with such a startling fact.

Early CPR and defibrillation can significantly improve survival chances.

It’s a hot issue in football at the moment with a big drive for awareness on the back of Luton Town’s Tom Lockyer, also a National League play-off winner at Bristol Rovers, surviving a cardiac arrest on the pitch for his club.

CPR

If something happened near you at a game or just in the street, would you know what to do?

Giving people the skills and confidence to give CPR to someone when they need it most, I played under Justin Edinburgh when I was at Fisher, and against him when he was at Billericay Town.

It was a fantastic time.

His son Charlie would be at pretty much every game – and training session!

He must have been about 12 or 13 at the time, so we’ve known each other a long time.

As everyone will know, Justin had a sudden cardiac arrest when he was at a health club.

They didn’t have a defibrillator on site.

Through the JE3 Foundation – set-up in his name – Justin’s legacy shines brightly.

Charlie is determined to achieve Justin’s Law, which is aiming for it to be mandatory for all sports facilities to have a defibrillator on site.

Secondly, day-to-day he is going around different venues and teaching people CPR.

Upskill

People don’t necessarily understand what a big difference that can make.

How can we help more people upskill and be more confident to apply potentially life-saving CPR intervention?

Can we upskill more people to be confident if it comes to using an on-site defibrillator?

At The Sports Circle – proud sponsors at this year’s National Game Awards – we’ve teamed up with Charlie and The JE3 Foundation because that’s exactly the message we’re trying to help amplify into the Non-League world.

With my Non-League Day hat on, I’ve seen the power of football.

We haven’t had the final figure but I know this year’s annual celebration raised a fantastic amount for Prostate Cancer UK.

That just goes to show the results we can get.

Vital

We see it on a near-weekly basis where a game is delayed – or even abandoned – because of a medical emergency in the stands.

It can affect people of all ages, including footballers.

I know what it was like when I was in the 18-30 bracket.

You feel invincible and that you will live forever.

You’re fit, running around and having a good time.

But you don’t know what might be underlying in your body.

As I’ve got older and been able to learn and understand more about this area, I’ve got a greater appreciation for how vital it can be.

Risk

One crucial learning has been that every week in the UK, 12 apparently fit and healthy young people die from an undiagnosed cardiac issue.

There is a heightened risk for athletes because of the extra stress exercise puts on their heart, so athletes who do have an undiagnosed issue may trigger this in the course of their usual sports participation.

A screening strategy, applied in Italy since 1982, has led to an 89 per cent reduction in sudden cardiac death amongst athletes, and with that in mind we have partnered with M.I.A.L Healthcare to enhance the sports medicine pathway we have created with FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence Isokinetic, London to facilitate better access to heart screenings for Non-League clubs.

This enables them to benefit from the model proven to have worked so well in Italy so we can create a stat for the UK we’d all be proud to read about in the years to come.