Former Cardiff Rugby star Nick Williams says he's counting his blessings every day after opening up on the cardiac arrest that almost killed him.
Williams, who retired from professional rugby in 2020, collapsed in the back garden of his friend's house last September after suffering a cardiac arrest, and recalls very little of the incident that so nearly cost him his life.
Recounting that fateful day as part of Cardiff's drive to support the Wales Air Ambulance service, he said: "The day itself I don't remember. I don't remember anything of it. I trained in the morning. I took my kids to school and my wife to work.
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"My wife gave me a task to go up to my friend Jason's house to be a witness for my daughter's passport. So that didn't happen.
"If Jason [my friend] hadn't found me in the back yard that day, I probably wouldn't be here."
Jason Redrup, a retired police officer, was the one who found the Aucklander, and immediately performed CPR before alerting emergency services, with an air ambulance then rushing Williams off to hospital.
"All I could see was a person lying on their back on the floor," Redrup told Williams in a video interview with the two men. "I didn't even know it was you, because your face was just bright purple.
"I felt for a pulse and couldn't feel anything so I started CPR on you straight away."
Williams was technically dead for a few minutes, he said. He recalls coming round from his hospital bed, and immediately assumed he'd suffered an injury while in action on the rugby field.
"They said I was gone for two or three minutes," he said. "The memory that first comes to mind was when I woke up at the hospital in the Heath and my brother was there. I was asking him if we won or lost. I thought I'd been concussed during a rugby game."
The 20 stone former number 8 admits he has struggled to come to terms with what happened, but says the love of his family has been a driving force behind the mental side of his recovery.
"I think a lot of people think rugby players are these big brutes, these tough blokes, but this is a whole different kettle of fish. I've played in front of thousands and thousands of people, but this is by far the biggest challenge I've had.
"I think as a father, when I look down I've got these three sets of eyes looking up at me. That only encourages me to be more and more positive. Every now and then you have a bit of a lull, but that's life.
"My wife has been my cornerstone long before I started playing rugby and that hasn't changed. Seeing my kids, I just want to get better for them.
"I'm just extremely blessed for all these things and all these people who have helped me still be here today."
Williams' efforts to deal with the difficult mental health days resulting from what happened have been helped by the mother of Wales player Gareth Anscombe. Williams is a close friend of the family and Cardiff-born Tracey Anscombe works at the Romily's cafe in Barry.
Williams added: "I've made myself very vulnerable with regards to reaching out and talking to people. Tracey, she has been in my life a long time.
"She's helped me through my tough times. Whenever I felt a bit low I'd take a stroll down there. It's a nice little place called Romily's. I'm just trying to re-connect with people and talk to people and count my blessings everyday.
"I'd just come down and chat to the locals, the girls behind the till and just help me with my mental health."
Tracey said of Williams: "I wouldn't want to be on my own with it because you just never know when it might happen again. At least being down here it was like family, you know. At least he lives to tell the tale."
