I kept thinking, you’re not going yet. You’re not going to leave me.

We would normally sit in the lounge about 9pm and have an evening drink. My husband sat down on the sofa and immediately started to snore. My first thought was that he’d gone to sleep quickly but when I looked at him, I could see his eyes had rolled back in his head, and he wasn’t breathing.

He’s not snoring, he’s dying, I thought to myself.

All my training just kicked in. I started to do CPR and I called 999. They told me to drag him onto the floor and to keep performing chest compressions.

Two ambulance crews arrived in five minutes. I was doing CPR and getting tired but when they said I could let them take over I didn’t want to stop.

The paramedics shocked him with a defibrillator – or zapped him as I say. He didn’t come back so they gave him more CPR and zapped him again. This time he did come back.

The senior paramedic said that a low percentage of cardiac arrest patients survive, but because I acted so quickly, I’d probably saved his life.

I feel so humbled that I could do what I did and I’m grateful that my refresher course with St John Ambulance gave me the confidence to try.

I think everyone should learn first aid. If I hadn’t learned CPR I’d be a widow now and we wouldn’t have had these years together. Now we’re grateful for every day we have together.

Knowing how to do CPR and having some basic first aid training made a very, very big difference and I've still got my husband.