Dad who set up defibrillator campaign honoured

Mark King set up The Oliver King Foundation in 2012

A father whose 12-year-old son died following a cardiac arrest has been made an OBE after setting up a foundation which has saved more than 80 lives by providing defibrillators.

Mark King's son Oliver suffered a cardiac arrest during a swimming lesson at school in Liverpool in 2011 and died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.

The Oliver King Foundation has since given out 7,000 defibrillators, and Mr King's campaigning led to the government ensuring every state school in England has access to one of the life-saving machines.

"Our Ollie was only with us for 12 years but he never let us down once and this is us not letting his name down," he said.

Oliver King died after his heart stopped in a school swimming lesson in 2011

Mr King, 63, said when he first found out he was to be included in the King's Birthday Honours he thought the letter had gone to the wrong address.

"I'm not one for awards, I just want to march on. I'm just a dad, that's it, I'm a dad.

"But, for an OBE to come through - I was cartwheeling in the garden!"

He said Oliver was "very sporty", "always had a football under his arm" and was about to sign for Everton, but unknown to the family he had a genetic condition passed down from his father which led to his cardiac arrest.

Mr King is working to set up a centre to provide testing for all children to see if they have the gene.

"The morning that he had his cardiac arrest he was swimming," he said.

"If you have this genetic condition that's the worst thing you can do... because when you go in the water, you know that little shock, it's an adrenaline rush, and that can send you into cardiac arrest.

"Unfortunately for us, that happened to our Ol."

The foundation has received support from former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher

Since the foundation was set up in 2012, Mr King has personally delivered all the defibrillators to schools, businesses and sporting venues as far north as Stornoway and as far south as Portsmouth.

Mr King said 84 lives had been saved by the devices, including a child as young as four.

"When you get the emails through off the parents, I still get the same feeling as though it's the first one," he said.

"I know it's not a tally but a life has been saved - maybe our Oliver's life would have been saved if someone would have done what we're doing now."

He said the lives had been saved in Oliver's name, adding: "Not mine, I'm only carrying his torch."

In 2024 the foundation donated life-saving equipment to a school in Kenya

The foundation, which also provides training to use the machines, has received support from former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher, as well as politicians including Liverpool Garston MP Maria Eagle, Lord Mike Storey and Lord Stuart Polak.

Mr King, of Childwall, Liverpool, said he had dealt with six prime ministers during his time as a campaigner.

He said: "It's like setting a business up - you could fail or you could march on. In this particular case we marched on and got stronger and stronger and stronger. I don't have a reverse gear."

He said he plans to continue his campaign and is calling for a change in the law which would see defibrillators required in all public buildings, in the same way as fire extinguishers.