Three cricketers from Bearsted who saved the life of a friend after he collapsed while practising in the nets have been have been hailed as heroes.

David Patton, who suffered a cardiac arrest on the evening of April 7 this year is convinced he would not be here today if it weren't for the determined action of fellow Bearsted Cricket Club members Simon Barker, Piers Cottee-Jones and Noel Johnston.

Mr Patton, who is chairman of the club, relayed the tale - as best as he could remember it.

He said: "I turned up for an early season training session at Hollingbourne Cricket Ground. It was a clear, warm spring evening and some other players were already there putting up the nets.

"I parked up as normal - and then my memory ends!

"But others tell me I went to help with the nets and then went into them as first batsman.

"After a couple of balls, I leant forward to pick up a ball to throw it back to the bowler and just blacked out."

He said: "People rushed over, thinking I had been struck by the ball, but I hadn't.

"I came round and people had called an ambulance, but I said no, cancel it, I was fine now.

"But some of the chaps insisted on walking me back to the pavilion to rest up.

"As we walked, they said my eyes suddenly sank into my head, I fell backwards and started convulsing.

"One of the guys, Noel, had had some medical training, and realised what was happening."

I'm so grateful to them'

He said: "He began CPR on me, while others phoned for the ambulance.

"I was unconscious and had stopped breathing, but he and Simon and Piers took it in turns with the CPR to keep me breathing until the ambulance arrived 12 minutes later.

"The medics gave me one hit with a defibrillator, which was enough to get my heart started gain."

Mr Patton subsequently spent a week in the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, where it was discovered he had arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) - a genetically inherited heart weakness.

He said: "I had no idea until that point that I had anything wrong."

He said: "But I had been playing more sport and getting fitter over the previous months, and apparently the extra stress on the heart muscle from exercise can cause an attack."

Sadly, that means that he won't be playing cricket any more, but his club has nevertheless just appointed him vice president.

He said: "If it weren't for Simon, Piers and Noel, I wouldn't be here, or perhaps, I would be here but unable to talk and brain damaged. They kept the air flowing that kept me alive.

"I'm so grateful to them and indeed to the first responders and all the medical staff who subsequently looked after me.

"I feel very blessed."

Because the condition is inherited, Mr Patton's parents and his two sons, aged nine and 12, have had to undergo tests to see if they too have the condition, fortunately the tests have been clear.

The three life-savers have since been awarded Resuscitation Certificates by the Royal Humane Society for the good deed.

Mr Patton said: “I owe my life to them. If ever any-one deserved these awards, they do. They were brilliant.”

Royal Humane Society Secretary, Andrew Chapman, said: "This is yet another example of the value of as many people as possible, not just members of the emergency services, learning how to administer CPR.

"The sooner it is started the more likely it is to succeed and it was started immediately in this case. It can, as it did here, make the difference between life and death.”