Phillip Schofield has opened up about a time that he saved his father Brian's life using CPR. He discussed the moment during an interview with The Only Way is Essex star Mark Wright on ITV's This Morning. Mark got emotional too, breaking down in tears after chatting about a time he was unable to save a man who'd had a heart attack.
Talking about his own history with CPR, Phillip said: "There was a moment where it looked like he was certainly dead on the carpet and the whole world went into some sort of sharp focus.
"I hadn't been trained but I had watched stuff on TV. My mum was running next door and the whole place was in panic. And the thing is, it's knackering. To do that for half-an-hour [is tiring]."
Phillip explained that "luckily", paramedics quickly arrived at the scene. He added that his father, Brian, lived for "another 30 years". He would pass away from his long-standing heart condition in May 2008.
This week, it has been announced that Virgin Media O2 has rolled out defibrillators to all company-owned stores across the UK, increasing access to life-saving equipment on hundreds of High Streets in partnership with the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Across the week (January 19 - January 26), the business is raising awareness and urging more people to learn CPR on screens outside O2 stores nationwide – expected to be seen by millions of UK shoppers. This Morning airs on weekdays at 10am. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
About Mark's experience, the reality star and presenter talked about the time in Tenerife when he attempted to use his CPR training to save a fellow hotel guest's life. Mark explained, “My best friend is Charlie Edinburgh, the son of Justin Edinburgh who sadly lost his life from a cardiac arrest in 2019 and he started a charity helping people to learn CPR and trying to get defibrillators in as many places as possible.
“He asked me to be part of a video where I learnt CPR and convince others to do the same. And that day that I landed [in Tenerife] I received the video that I had shot a week before and literally from going to the airport and to the hotel, I had watched the video, checked into the hotel with my wife and this poor man's wife came up in tears and panicking saying her husbands collapsed and nobody in the hotel responded…”
Phillip said, “This was a big hotel, no one was trained in CPR and there were no defibrillators?”
Mark replied, “No, I thought I was in a place where you’d expect people to be trained… but it wasn’t whether they were trained or not, it was the fact no one reacted, no one was replying to this poor woman’s cries. I said to Michelle, I’m going to have to go and because it was so fresh in my mind, it's having the confidence and knowing what to do. It’s taken me 35 years to know how to do CPR, and how it’s not in the school curriculum, I do not know.”
Getting emotional, Mark said, “I did what I could… he was there for a while before I got there.”
Phillip went on to explain how his father collapsed when they were in New Zealand, “He was certainly dead on the carpet and the whole world went into some sharp focus and I hadn’t been trained but I had watched stuff on TV… My mum was running next door and the whole place was in panic but - and you mentioned this before we came on air - it’s knackering. To do that for half an hour…”
He added: “Thankfully the ambulance was very quick, used the defibrillator and brought him back and he went on to have heart surgery and lived for another 30 years. But if I hadn't been in that night - I was never in - then there was no chance he would’ve survived those extra 30 years and seen his grandchildren…
“But you can only do your best, and thank goodness you were there Mark. And you were told by the family it gave them the opportunity to say goodbye to him.”
Mark said, “Yes, I kept him - he certainly wasn’t fully alive - but he was coming back with certain breaths and it allowed him to be put on a life support machine so he wasn’t pronounced dead whilst he was under my hands, but I did all I could and that’s all you can do in that situation.”
Mark later showed viewers together with This Morning’s Dr Zoe Williams how to perform CRP.
To see the full interview visit itv.com/watch/this-morning
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