Recently we caught up at Toast in Oxted with Oxted legend, David Sullivan, founder of Code Blue CPR – yes him off the Insta reels! – fresh from his trip up Everest to install a defibrillator and set another world record…
Following on from four other entries in the Guinness Book of World Records, including hitting a golf ball all the way from John O’Groats to Land’s End…twice, David is back on terra firma. While ticking off his own incredible bucket list of adventures, David is on a mission to highlight and raise awareness of needless deaths and try to avoid as many as possible by promoting training, products and services around CPR.
David lost four close friends – all under the age of 46 – to cardiac arrest. To combat his own grief and depression, he went on a mission to address the shocking statistics of the less than 8% survival rate to Cardiac Arrest in the UK and why this rate is so much lower in the UK compared to Scandinavia, USA and Canada, where survival rates are as high as 50-60%. This is down to more accessible devices and widespread CPR training.
Seven years ago, he experienced a turning point when he saved a young man’s life by performing CPR for nine minutes and using a defibrillator on a golf course. The next day, he learned from the man’s family that his efforts had saved the young man’s life—a moment that made him realise the power of taking action.
Over 30 people had witnessed him performing CPR that day, and when he later shared the story with a Philips director, he was invited to Vienna. There, despite being a fourth-generation roofer with no formal medical background, he was warmly welcomed by leading resuscitation experts. This experience inspired him to help improve the UK’s cardiac arrest survival rate, which lags far behind countries like Austria.
Since then, he has spent seven years advocating for and sharing lifesaving knowledge across the UK, motivated by both personal loss and the life he helped save. With the unwavering support of his wife, Sally, he has recently collaborated with his son Freddie to develop an innovative defibrillator cabinet. Built with advanced materials used in space missions, the cabinet maintains optimal conditions without power, allowing defibrillators to be deployed in remote and extreme environments—ensuring they are ready when lives are at stake.
David has set up training programmes all over the country; installed countless defibrillators – including the ones around Oxted town centre – and is about to embark on a programme to train London school kids in CPR.
David, whose energy, enthusiasm and commitment to saving lives as a legacy for his lost friends, gets emotional when talking about what he does. “I think they’d be proud of what I’ve achieved”, he said this morning.
They absolutely would David. Thank you for everything you’re doing.
If you are interested in CPR training for yourself, your employees, your students or other community groups, or if you are interested in buying or installing one or more defibrillators in your company, school or community, please find out more on Code CPR’s Website. https://codebluecpr.co/
