A retired police officer who suffered a cardiac arrest is set to walk 150 miles in aid of two close causes.

Bill Bailey, 68, who lives in Bury, suffered the cardiac arrest last year.

He has always been a very active person and worked as a police officer until he was aged 49 when he retired.

After he realised retirement was not for him, he got a job at Rochdale Tesco Superstore and worked there for 18 years, making many friends along the way.

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In mid-2021 during the pandemic, Bill began to train to do the Grand Union Canal walk, something he had always wanted to do.

Bill said: “All my life I have wanted to walk the Grand Union Canal, which is a 150-mile mainline walk from the River Thames at Brentford in London to Gas Street Basin in Birmingham.

“In July 2021, I decided that the time was right to begin preparing for the walk, which was planned to take place in June 2022.”

Bill was due to retire for the second time from his 18-year career at Tesco in March 2022 and he had planned the walk to take place after his retirement.

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But on January 2, 2022, he suffered a cardiac arrest while out on an afternoon meal with family.

They managed to call for help and his stepchildren Paul and Sarah were able to begin CPR immediately and continued to do so for 10 minutes, breaking several ribs in the process, until the ambulance arrived.

Once the ambulance arrived, they took over the situation and managed to keep him alive and rush him to hospital.

Bill then re-arrested in A&E and was transferred to a specialist heart centre, where he was in a coma for seven days.

During this course of events, the blood clot ended up splitting from his heart and went into his right foot, killing the blood supply and led to the amputation of his toes, making it a very difficult and painful process to recovery.

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Bill’s recovery has been a long journey and he has permanent damage to his heart, brain function and foot.

Despite this, Bill was always determined to complete this walk, albeit 12 months later.

Bill said: "I have chosen these two charities (British Heart Foundation and RNLI) to raise money for those who save lives and in recognition of saving my own.

“All the money raised will go directly to these charities.”

The walk is completely self-funded, and Bill said he chose the RNLI because it has been his chosen charity for life as he has a love of water and admiration for those who volunteer to save lives, and the British Heart Foundation as he is one of the two per cent of people who suffer out of hospital cardiac arrests and survive.

Bill will be starting the walk on July 24 and will be completing it on the August 8.

He hopes to raise a total of £500 and has currently raised £280, click here to visit his GoFundMe crowdfunding page.

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