THE FAMILY of a teenage mountain biker have recalled the 'horrendous' moment his heart suddenly stopped whilst out on a ride.
Adam Dawe, 34, was out for a ride with his stepson Oscar, 14, when the youngster complained of feeling dizzy.
They were with a local mountain biking group, The Cornwall Bicycle Project, on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall last Monday 15 December, when the incident occurred.
His heart stopped beating and he stopped breathing after collapsing in a car park.
Oscar was eventually rushed to hospital and spent four days in an induced coma. He has now woken up and is awaiting heart surgery.
Recalling the horror of the incident, Mr Dawe said: "Oscar has always loved mountain biking, since he was nine or 10 he's been out with me doing 18 mile rides and absolutely smashed it.
"So when he started falling behind on a relatively easy ride, it was strange. It wasn't like Oscar.
"We managed to get him back to the car park when he said he felt dizzy, but when we got there he just collapsed, his heart stopped beating and he stopped breathing.
"It was horrendous. I can't stop thinking about what would have happened if it had happened 15 minutes before when I was alone with Oscar."
Thankfully, a member of the group was trained in First Aid and gave Oscar life-saving CPR, whilst other members of the groups ran to get a defibrillator.
Oscar has since remained at Bristol Children's Hospital, where his mother Emmie Moran, 38, is by his side.
Doctors believe the problem was that one of his arteries has grown differently to a normal heart, so blood gets restricted during intense exercise.
Once surgery is complete, it's thought it will take Oscar, who was desctribed as 'polite, kind and driven' by his stepdad, six months to recover.
The family have now started a fundraiser to raise buy more lifesaving defibrillators to put in local mountain biking hotspots.
The Just Giving fundraiser was set up just 5 days ago, but has already overshot it's target of £1,500, reaching a staggering £2,610 so far.
Adam said: "It's a miracle when you think about how lucky we were a defibrillator was so close when we were literally in the middle of nowhere.
"The response to the fundraiser has been ridiculous. A defibrillator costs about £1,500 so now we're aiming to get a second.
"So long as Oscar recovers fully, then something good could actually come of this."
You can donate to the fundraiser here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/oscars-defib?utm_term=vmER2k9gB&fbclid=IwAR26WdSTDe2uombbJKZJ97_hhVQ_ytz5Y1YqQgt52ZONM2Y0TWpSImUPVk4
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