HE saw his young son survive a terrifying heart attack aged just 10.

And now a grateful dad has handed over equipment to try and save other people in the future.

Tony Newman has bought life-saving equipment for his school.

Tony and his family were on holiday when son Ed suddenly collapsed.

The emergency services were on the scene within five minutes and were able to re-start Ed’s heart.

But the experience proved how fragile life can be and how cardiac arrest could strike at any age.

Ed is now fitted with an internal defibrillator which will automatically shock his heart back into life.

But other youngsters may not be so lucky and Tony, 47, of Thongsbridge, made a gift of a £1,500 defibrillator to Ed’s new school, Holmfirth High.

Tony told how the family were on holiday in Weymouth in August last year when Ed suffered a heart attack.

He had previously collapsed and was under investigation at the heart unit in Leeds.

He was due to be fitted with a heart monitor on his return home but tragedy almost struck.

“We were very lucky,” said Tony, a divisional sales director.

“A paramedic got to our caravan five minutes after the call and an ambulance arrived two minutes later.

“Ed was resuscitated after 12 minutes and was taken to a local hospital by helicopter.

“He was then transferred to a special centre at Southampton General Hospital where he was kept in a controlled coma for a week.”

Ed was gradually brought round and has since made a full recovery.

While Ed, now 11, had no memory of what happened, the experience had a profound effect on Tony and wife Clare, 39.

The couple, who have three more children Harry, 12, also a pupil at Holmfirth High, Lucy, six, and 19-month-old Lily, decided to campaign and raise funds for children’s heart charities.

They support Hand on Heart, which puts defibrillators into schools, and the Children’s Heart Federation.

The family were touched by the plight of professional footballer Fabrice Muamba who had a heart attack while playing for Bolton in March.

He ‘died’ on the pitch but was resuscitated. He has since recovered but has had to retire from the game.

In the same month 15-year-old Luke Chapman collapsed and died playing rugby at school in Hagley, Worcestershire.

Tony and Clare will run a half-marathon in London next month to raise money to pay for a defibrillator for Luke’s school Haybridge High.

Tony said: “It’s all about saving lives and it depends on how remote your school is as to how good the chances of survival are.

“Figures show that if you have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest you have a 5% chance of surviving.

“That puts it in perspective and shows that Ed was one of only one-in-20 who survive.”

The £1,500 cost of a defibrillator includes training in its use for six members of staff and CPR lessons for 30 pupils.