Former Swindon manager comes to County Ground in support of CPR campaign
He is supporting a campaign by the British Heart Foundation and the EFL
Last updated 1st Apr 2025
Ex-Swindon Town manager Glenn Hoddle is coming back to Swindon today to raise awareness for the importance of learning CPR.
He is supporting the Every Minute Matters Relay organised by the EFL and British Heart Foundation which is seeing a number of football legends walk or cycle to each of the 72 clubs that are part of the English Football League.
The Swindon leg of the relay kicks off at 10am today and will see two ambitious cyclists take on the 54km challenge of cycling from the County Ground to Cheltenham’s EV Charging Point Stadium.
Glenn Hoddle, who survived cardiac arrest thanks to someone performing CPR on him, said: “It takes 15 minutes to actually learn CPR. I think people, they’re a little bit scared of CPR but we’re trying to break that down.
“You will save peoples’ lives and there’s no better thing in life, I don’t think, than saving somebody else’s life. What a thing to do for somebody”.
In the South West, more than two in five fans (41%) have been in a situation that required CPR but more than half (53%) say they do not feel confident to act.
Almost half of fans have (46%) have never received any CPR training, but many are worried to do something wrong.
Almost every tenth fan (9%) thinks CPR is too complicated to learn and a third of fans (32%) are concerned about doing more harm than good.
Glenn Hoddle, however, disagrees.
“The nurse said to me in hospital – funny enough, she made me laugh which was quite painful at the time – she said: ‘Mr. Hoddle, how many ribs did the man break when he did your CPR?’.
“I said: ‘Seven’ and she said: ‘Oh, that’s a very good one’
“Well, if someone is in cardiac arrest, believe me, seven ribs compared to your life – it’s not a problem”.
In the UK, more than 2,500 people per month suffer from cardiac arrest outside of hospital, but there is less than a one-in-ten chance of survival.
With every passing minute, this chance decreases by 10% - meaning that while waiting for someone to fetch a defibrillator or for the ambulance to arrive, CPR can make the difference between life and death.
“I happened to be so fortunate for the cardiac arrest to be around somebody. You could be on your own”, said Hoddle.
“Obviously, I was lucky there were a lot of people there, but Simon knew how to do CPR and he saved my life, it’s as simple as that”.
Despite the original plan including Hoddle to participate in the Swindon leg of the relay today, he will only be present at the starting point at the County Ground due to a knee injury.