The mother of a teenager who collapsed on the pitch during a football match says it's vitally important grassroots club coaches are trained in advanced first aid.

Clare Houldsworth, from Pleckgate, said it's only thanks to the actions of the away team's coach and two off-duty nurses who were present at the match, that her son, Mason, 15, survived.

Mason, who plays for Whalley Juniors, was 20 minutes into an 80 minute home game against Todmorden FC last Sunday when he suddenly went blue, collapsed, and had a seizure.

Lancashire Telegraph: MasonMason

Mrs Houldsworth said: "He's a fit young lad, he's been playing football since he was five.

"My husband, Mark, was at the game watching and said he just went blue and had a full blown seizure.

"One of the coaches from Todmorden, Ryan Heyes, ran over and pulled his tongue out of his throat.

Lancashire Telegraph: Mason, left. Image: KIPAX Mason, left. Image: KIPAX

"Luckily, there were two off-duty nurses there too, one called Steph Faulkner and Fallon Scaife, who were watching their sons playing for Tod.

"Fallon went to get a defib and Steph was about to commence CPR as at first they couldn't find a pulse.

"An ambulance was phoned and thank God, he came round but was very, very dazed.

"He was taken to hospital and had ECGs and blood tests and was discharged on Tuesday morning."

Lancashire Telegraph: Mason, right, and his brother a couple of years agoMason, right, and his brother a couple of years ago

Mrs Houldsworth said the tests came back inconclusive, but the results were being sent to cardiology at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool and would be followed up with a consultant at Royal Blackburn Hospital. 

She added: "He's not got any underlying conditions and this had never happened before.

"He's now got a bit of a low heart rate and has had a couple of dizzy spells but they don't really know what caused it.

"We don't know whether he fainted and swallowed his tongue and that caused the seizure, but they think it might be cardiac related but we aren't really sure."

Mrs Houldsworth says she will be forever grateful for the help provided by Ryan, Steph and Fallon and now wants to raise awareness of how important advanced first aid is for grassroots football clubs. 

She went on: "We cannot thank them enough, if they weren't there I probably wouldn't now have my son alive.

"There's a friendship been built there that will never go away, and I am so grateful to them. 

"We are arranging to do some events with Todmorden FC in the near future and hope to raise some awareness.

"I just think that people need to realise that these kinds of things can happen, even to youngsters.

"Football clubs only have a certain amount of money and the coaches really only have basic first aid, but it would be better if all the coaches were advanced.

"If it can happen to my son, it can happen to adults, and to anyone really."

Head Coach at Whalley Juniors, Dave Bradshaw said: "As coaches we all have to have first aid but when this happened I was straight on the phone to the club secretary asking if there was anything we could do about sending us all on advanced courses, as all the coaches are keen to get it done.

"It was a really traumatic day and we were very lucky that Ryan Heyes was there - he was cool and calm and went in and did what he did, he didn't flinch he just did it.

"It's like what happened to Christian Eriksen, he just dropped down, if I had been on my own coaching the lads I don't know how it would have ended.

"You can have all the training in the world sometimes but it's how you act on the day, and I truly believe that Ryan saved Mason's life.

"I'm just glad Mason is ok and I hope to see him back at training soon because he's my best player."