Daughter whose dad died after Aston Villa match qualifies as paramedic 'to help others'

Emily Jones, 26, from Walsall, qualified as a paramedic after her dad Brian died following a cardiac arrest outside Villa Park on December 28, 2014

A devastated daughter who lost her dad to a cardiac arrest after an Aston Villa match has qualified as a paramedic. Heartbroken Emily Jones was determined to help others following the tragedy almost a decade ago.

Emily was just 16 as she battled to save dad Brian's life when he collapsed near their car parked at Aston Social Club. She called an ambulance and carried out chest compressions on the 71-year-old, a retired chef and Villa fan for more than 60 years. Despite her desperate efforts, along with another fan, Birmingham-born Brian died at City Hospital.

Following the tragedy outside Villa Park after the game against Sunderland on December 28, 2014, Emily decided to pursue a career as a paramedic as she knew she wanted to help others in crisis situations. She had to retake exams in science, maths and English before heading to university to study paramedic science.

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Emily, now 26, from Walsall, has now finished university and is set to start as a first responder for East Midlands Ambulance Service from mid-November. She told BirminghamLive: "When it happened, I didn't have the right qualifications to start. Before I even got near university I had to repeat English and maths. I had to do an an access to HE (Higher Education) science course at college to even get me into uni.

"Obviously you need to be 18 to go to university. And at the time I wasn't ready to do it anyway. I qualified on September 23 as you can't operate as a paramedic without a pin number with the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council). I knew weeks ago when I got my degree classification I had passed."

Asked what she thought her dad would make of her achievement, she said: "I think he'd be chuffed to bits. The reason I did it is because of what happened. I can't believe I've done it to be honest. It's taken years."

She studied at Lincoln University for a year before completing her second and third years at Staffordshire University. She will now have to do two-weeks of clinical induction training for the Trust and four-weeks of blue light driver training before she is ready to begin. "I happy and once I've done my training I will be going to incidents and helping people in need," she added.

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