Chairman Antony Tonks

Gender:   Male

Interests:   all sports public support

Occupation: semi professional rugby league player / chairman of Heartbeat of sport.

Nick names: Tony/Tonka/ Tonky

Family Name: Antony

Qualifications:

Level 2 certificated in Rugby League
Certified Basic First Aid in sports
Certified Emergency First Aid at work.
Level 2 in employment awareness in active leisure and learning
Level 2 in fitness instructing gym based exercise
Level 2 NVQ diploma in instructing exercise and fitness
Level 3 NVQ diploma in personal training
Level 3 award in employment awareness in active leisure and learning
Level 3 certificate in personal training
Advanced level apprenticeship in personal training in the active leisure and learning sector
Extended DBS

Tony is a keen sports man, who helped set up Heartbeat of Sport in 2012 with the Trustees.

Being a well travelled sports man and after sadly experiencing losing players and coaches on the field within his own sport, he saw the need for raising awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest and heart failure within sports as a whole, and ultimately wanted the charity to help reduce unnecessary deaths.

His main aim with Heartbeat of sport is to educate the public in the importance of defibrillators being available in all organisations and to get the public trained in basic life saving skills. As well as this, Tony wanted to go as far as he could toward potentially preventing a cardiac arrest.

With this in mind Heartbeat of sport will soon have their own ECG screening clinic set up for grass roots clubs and organisations.

Many people have lost their lives taking part in a hobby they loved, resulting in leaving loved ones behind. An ECG or Electrocardiogram is a quick and easy test that can save many lives, simply by looking at the hearts rhythm.

After a trial in 2014 and 2015 Tony and Cardiologist Dr Jeremy Butts screening clinics resulted in an average of 3 people per clinic needing further investigation. These people were all active sports people.

Going further towards prevention and working closely with wife Gemma, Tony believes in the importance of educating children about smart food choices, getting kids active and tackling obesity which can lead to many horrible illnesses. Heartbeat of sport has now set up schools program based on these things as well as introducing simple first aid.

The team have also been doing lots of free awareness days in the community, designed to educate as many members of the public in one day, in basic life saving skills.

After a cardiac episode, a patient needs immediate medical attention but we found a large proportion of people would not help due to a lack of knowledge and confidence.

The 2 hour free courses are designed to give people both confidence and knowledge to perform effective CPR, defibrillator usage, recovery positions, deal with choking and much more. With this knowledge and hands on practice, Heartbeat of sport are creating more life savers.

Further information about Tony is available on his LinkedIn public profile.