Luton Town's Tom Lockyer inspires CPR research after interviews

Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch after having a cardiac arrest

Record numbers of people have researched CPR after a footballer talked about collapsing during a game, a health charity has said.

Luton Town's Tom Lockyer urged people to go to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) website and learn CPR in media interviews earlier this week.

The BHF said staff had been "blown away" by the response.

One manager said "unprecedented numbers" had looked for an online CPR "tool".

The 29-year-old defender collapsed after a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match against Bournemouth in December.

The Welsh international has told how he was "technically dead" for two minutes and 40 seconds and was resuscitated by medics.

"We've been blown away by the public response to Tom Lockyer's interviews telling the story of how he collapsed on the pitch and was saved thanks to prompt CPR and defibrillation," Lizzie Moscardini, BHF programme manager for health partnerships and community resuscitation, told the BBC.

"We are also incredibly grateful to him for encouraging people to learn CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] using our online tool ReviR, and have seen unprecedented numbers of visits to our website by people looking for the tool."

"Thank you to Tom for helping to raise awareness of learning this vital skill - we hope by speaking out he will be helping to save lives and improve survival rates."

Lockyer's defibrillator detects irregular heartbeats and can restart his heart

Lockyer says he will put his family's considerations first before any decision on a possible comeback following his health scare.

He said the thought of leaving his pregnant girlfriend alone to raise a child was "heart-breaking".

Lockyer said he was "forever grateful" to the medical staff who were quickly on hand to save him.

He has had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator fitted, which is designed to restart his heart instantly in case of a similar occurrence.