Tom Lockyer's experiences provide perspective for Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu - who aims to raise awareness of CPR

It arrives from his good friend and Wales international team-mate Tom Lockyer.

Last December, the Luton Town defender suffered a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match against Bournemouth and was "technically dead" for nearly three minutes.

Paramedics who performed CPR and defibrillation saved Lockyer’s life.

Lockyer has teamed up with the British Heart Foundation charity to get as many people as possible to learn CPR as part of the BHF and Sky Bet’s Every Minute Matters campaign.

Today’s date is also a significant one. It is designated as the BHF’s Restart a Heart Day to raise awareness about cardiac arrest.

Lockyer recently met up with Ampadu, with the United skipper keen to do his bit to raise awareness about the importance of learning the lifesaving skill. A free 15-minute interactive course is available by logging onto the BHF's website.

Ampadu, in action for Leeds on the day of Lockyer’s collapse, told The Yorkshire Post: "You never ever like to hear about things like this. It hits home even more when it’s a close friend who you have known for a long time.

"To see how well Tom is doing now, compared to how he was, is amazing to see.

"It was definitely a day where I felt like the world had just stopped. Everyone around me and who I know, their response was that just that hopefully we’d hear that he’d be well. We are at the point now where he is and that’s the main thing.

"With the campaign, he’s been teaching me about CPR and it’s one we are all really behind.

"From my point of view, it’s massive. I know everyone has got busy schedules and days, but it’s just 15 minutes of your day and you can learn about CPR.

"This is not just about football, it can unfortunately happen any time in life. It can happen anywhere and everywhere.

"As a club, we’d like to push Leeds fans to go online and do that 15-minute course as you never know when you might be around this situation. Fortunately, you can then help with being comfortable to perform CPR."

Echoing that message and recalling his memories of that fateful day, Lockyer commented: "It was obviously not a very nice day. Coming round on the pitch, I couldn’t speak or move, but could see what was going on and realised it was a serious situation I was in. I remember thinking that I could be dying.

"Soon after, I was thinking how I could turn this into a positive and trying to get as many people as I can to learn CPR.

"Our goal is to get three Wembley stadiums - 270,000 people - to learn CPR. We feel this is achievable, but really need people to buy into it.

"We don’t know how people are going to react in a situation like this because basically a person has ‘died’ in front of them.

"But we feel if you know what you are doing, you are more likely to step up and act and become someone’s hero."