黑马磁力's Azadeh Bell-Irving wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary when she went out for a morning run on the Fort-to-Fort Trail on April 30, 2023.
But heading out along the trail, she suddenly found a man lying face down on the trail.
"He wasn't moving," Bell-Irving remembered.
What she did next would help that man survive, and lead to Bell-Irving recently receiving a Vital Link Award from BC Emergency Health Services (BC EHS).
Bell-Irving found that the man on the trail was not responsive and was breathing with difficulty. She immediately called 9-1-1, and they talked her through the next steps.
"They were like, 'You need to start CPR now,'" Bell-Irving remembered.
She did, and also flagged down another person on the trail to help.
One of the most difficult parts was explaining to the 9-1-1 dispatcher exactly where she was so that BC EHS paramedics could find them.
When the other person who had stopped to help took over CPR, Bell-Irving ran to meet the ambulance, and when they pulled up to the trailhead they saw her waving.
Paramedics on foot and firefighters eventually reached the man, and the paramedics had an automatic defibrillator with them as well, she recalled.
She was glad to see the man taken off for medical help, and to see him getting good care.
But after that day, she didn't expect anything else to come of it.
Instead, Bell-Irving was surprised this spring to hear that she was receiving the Vital Link Award, which is presented by BC EHS to citizens who are involved in lifesaving efforts by providing CPR.
"It was totally unexpected," she said, "it came as a complete surprise."
The paramedics and firefighters are the real heroes, she said.
"I felt like, as a passerby on the trail, I just did what anyone would have done," said Bell-Irving.
At the recent award ceremony in Surrey, she also got to meet the man she gave CPR to, Murray Williamson, along with his family.
"It was totally overwhelming," she said.
She had always wondered what had happened to him after the incident.
"It was just nice to see him doing so well," Bell-Irving said.
She added that she hopes to bump into him on the trail again under better circumstances.
Brian Twaites of BC EHS said that bystander-assisted CPR, along with the use of an automatic defibrillator, can more than double someone's chances of surviving a sudden heart attack.
"When sudden cardiac arrest strikes, it is just that, sudden and unexpected," said Twaites.
Learning CPR is a gift that people can give to both loved ones and strangers.
