A Bath woman who saved her mother’s life with CPR is set to take on the Bath Half Marathon this month to raise money for the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Olivia Sugg with her mother Bridget and her BHF award | Photo © BHF
Olivia Sugg, 28, will run the race on Sunday 15th March in support of the charity, two years after performing CPR on her mum Bridget when she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at home.
In January 2024, Olivia stopped by her parents’ house during her lunch break to pick up a few things before travelling abroad. While she was chatting with her mum, 62-year-old Bridget collapsed in front of her.
At first Olivia thought her mum might have fainted, but quickly realised something was seriously wrong when she stopped breathing and began turning blue.
Having completed CPR training at work just two weeks earlier, Olivia called 999 and began chest compressions.
She continued CPR alone for eight minutes until paramedics arrived. They used a defibrillator to shock Bridget’s heart before she was airlifted to hospital, where she was placed into an induced coma.
Doctors warned the family that she might not survive the night and could face severe brain damage or long-term disability, but Bridget recovered.
Bridget woke from the coma three days later “pretty much intact”. After around two and a half weeks she was discharged and continued recovering at home. She was later fitted with a combination pacemaker-defibrillator device to help her heart work more efficiently and correct any life-threatening arrhythmias.
Olivia said: “When I think back to that day, it still feels like an out-of-body experience.
“Watching my mum collapse in front of me was the most frightening moment of my life. I remember screaming her name and hoping she’d just fainted.
“People say it must have been incredibly hard to do CPR on your mum, but the hardest part of the experience is knowing that it was luck that took me there that day.
“I never normally drop in on my mum during the day, and my dad wouldn’t have been back home until the end of the day. It’s so weird that I was there at that specific time, and that I’d just happened to learn CPR two weeks earlier.”
Olivia was recognised by the BHF in 2024 after being named a CPR Hero at the charity’s annual Heart Hero Awards, which she attended with her mother.
She said: “It was an incredibly powerful and emotional evening. We heard extraordinary stories from others who had saved lives. My mum and I had an amazing night, and it felt really special to share that moment together.”
As she prepares to run the Bath Half, Olivia hopes her story will encourage more people to learn CPR and back the BHF’s research.
She added: “You never know when you’re going to need CPR. It gives you the power to make a difference. I dread to think about what it would have been like to find myself in that situation and not known how to save a life. It’s a skill you just cannot afford not to have.”
The BHF offers a free online CPR training tool called RevivR, which teaches how to recognise a cardiac arrest, perform CPR and use a defibrillator in 15 minutes at bhf.org.uk/revivr.
In the UK, around 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen each year, with survival estimated at less than one in ten.
Pekham Seal, Events Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We’re so grateful to Olivia for taking on the Bath Half for the BHF.
“Her story is a powerful reminder that cardiac arrest can happen without warning and that CPR can be the difference between life and death.
“Olivia’s courage and quick action saved her mum’s life, and we’re incredibly proud to have her as part of Team BHF.”
