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00:00It was the 6th of February 2024. The incident happened approximately half past six in the evening at Queensgate bus station in Peterborough.
00:09Myself and my mentor, Scott Gibson, were just taking over a bus on, I think it was bay 16.
00:17The bus was empty, we had the doors closed whilst we were just doing what we had to do.
00:23Next thing we knew, a gentleman crashed through the doors, holding his chest and uttering something along the lines of,
00:32I think I'm having a heart attack, and then promptly collapsed onto the floor.
00:38We both looked at each other, we were like, okay.
00:44Then I jumped out of the cab, positioned the gentleman in such a way, because he was inside the bus in the vestibule,
00:52so that I could have a look at him, see what he was doing. It was pretty clear that he'd stopped breathing straight away.
01:01I shouted at Scott to phone an ambulance, and I proceeded to have to perform CPR on the gentleman,
01:10which involved rescue breaths and chest compressions.
01:15How long were you doing CPR for?
01:18Approximately four minutes, and I decided to stop at that point, because he was breathing again.
01:30So we stuck him in the recovery position, and just maintained his airway and monitored him.
01:38Luckily, it only took 13 minutes for the emergency services to arrive.
01:43We got a fire engine, two ambulances, and a scene commander.
01:48They must have just been local. It felt a lot longer.
01:55So they took over. Ten minutes or so, got him off the bus, in the back of the ambulance.
02:03We helped them with all their kit, getting it back on.
02:07I was asking if I was all right. Could I continue? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:11Absolutely fine. Went and washed my hands and everything.
02:14We got on the bus, took it round, and proceeded to run a 30 free service to March.
02:19I think just the basic level of first aid to anybody could literally mean the difference between life and death.
02:31I think it's important. I would advocate for everybody to just take the smallest course,
02:37or carry a little card with how to do CPR or something. It makes a difference.
02:43You won the award for it. Just explain what the award is and what it felt like to receive it.
02:49I understand it was a bit of a surprise when you were awarded it.
02:52It was a surprise. It was all kept like very cloak and dagger, secret swirl.
02:59I had to come into the depot to meet Hema Russell, who's my depot manager,
03:06and Darren Rowe, who's our MD for Stagecoach East.
03:14He congratulated me, explained who Mick Capper is, which is the gentleman the award is in memorial of.
03:24Essentially, he was an employee at Fenton, Stanton and Cambridge that had been with the company a gazillion years,
03:32and was sort of an ambassador. He was also instrumental from conception to completion of the busway.
03:42He unfortunately passed during COVID, so the company decided how can we honour him,
03:48and this is the award they came up with.
03:54I learned a little bit about it, but Darren explained it, and I was like, OK.
03:58He was like, this year, it's you.
04:01I was genuinely gobsmacked.