I OWE them my life.

They are the grateful words of Robert Jameson who is today thanking the heroic colleagues who kept him alive after he suffered a heart attack on the football pitch.

The 56-year-old, of Beechcroft Road, Ipswich, collapsed while playing a friendly match with work colleagues at the Goals centre at Suffolk New College, in Rope Walk, Ipswich on May 30.

Rushing to his side, Ben Jones who works with Mr Jameson at gas company BOC in Hadleigh Road, Ipswich, realised something was seriously wrong when he couldn’t find a pulse.

As they waited for paramedics, Mr Jones immediately started giving his colleague CPR – an act Mr Jameson says saved his life.

“I was just playing football and basically I just went out,” the father-of-three said. “I remember them bringing me round and putting me in the ambulance.

“It was a heart attack, the first I have had.

“I owe my life to the boys who gave me CPR until the paramedics got there. I want to thank them all for keeping me alive. They saved my life.

“Had it happened anywhere else, I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” he told The Star. “I was lucky they were all there with me.”

But his colleague Mr Jones told the Star he did what any other friend would have and praised his co-workers who called for help.

“We were just having a friendly kick around when Jamie suffered a heart attack,” he said. “It was obviously something serious, he just collapsed, there was no one near him he just fell down.

“We got him in the recovery position and found he had no pulse, none of us are trained first aiders.

“We couldn’t get a pulse so we rolled him over and I started performing CPR.

“It was awful to see him in that state. I think I just paused for a moment thinking ‘what do we do?’, but you just get on with it.

“There were two coaches down there at the time and they came across and relieved me.”

The East of England Ambulance Service said they were called to the Goals centre in Rope Walk, Ipswich on May 30 at 5.36pm.

Three minutes later paramedics were at the scene and by 6.13pm Mr Jameson was at Ipswich Hospital. He was later transferred to Papworth Hospital and was back home ten days later.

n Has someone saved your life that you want to thank? Write to Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or you can e-mail lizzie.parry@archant.co.uk