Man who had cardiac arrest completes epic bike ride

Tom Patterson, aged 67, set off from John O’ Groats last month and completed the remaining three-and-a-half days of his ride to Lands End without any further problems about two weeks ago, despite some apprehension before he set off:
“I was a bit nervous, but it went absolutely fantastic, with no problems whatsoever,” said Mr Patterson, who still undergoes regular check-ups at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading for his condition.
“When I got to the finish line I felt as if I could do it all over again,” he said, adding his grandchildren ran over the finish line with him.
He made it, he continued, with lots of support, including his wife, Linda, who followed him in a support car.
“My daughter-in-law, Jennifer had made the most amazing cake depicting my ride from one end of the country to the other and even including a little red-cross flag marking Bristol Royal Infirmary, where I was brought back from the edge,” he said.
His eldest son, Karl, also rode with him throughout - after setting off from the spot where he suffered his heart attack last year - and a friend (Charlie) along with his youngest son, Etienne, an Andover firefighter, joined them for two days of the ride, which raised just over £2,600 for The Fire Fighters Charity.
“It was dry but there was a howling gale blowing into our faces for most of the day. The hills were painful but we all managed to complete the 61 miles into Hayle,” said Mr Patterson of the third day of their ride.
They rode into Penzance on the fourth day to complete the ride, where there was a festival, with crowds, “wall-to-wall,” he said, before riding up the lifeboat slipway to get to Lands End.
“The feeling of elation was incredible. All the family were there to meet us and there were some noisy and emotional scenes, much to the amusement of a coach-load of German tourists,” he said.
Last year, Mr Patterson went into cardiac arrest on day ten of the ride, after travelling 711 miles, when he collapsed into a hedge after cycling up Naish Hill at Clapton-in-Gordano - a village near Bristol.
He was taken to the Bristol Heart Institute at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he remained for four days, initially in intensive care.
He has since had an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) device fitted under the skin in his shoulder. The small battery powered device is programmed to detect cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by delivering a jolt of electricity.
“I’ve never had such an experience before – it was literally like a fuse had gone. One moment I was talking normally and the next I was effectively dead,” he said last year.