'Saving my fiance's life with CPR made us closer'

8 hours ago

Tom MacDougallNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Justyce Crossman performed CPR on fiance David Robinson for 20 minutes after he had a heart attack

Supplied Justyce Crossman with her arm around her fiancee David Robinson. Both are in their early twenties. Justyce has long, brown hair and brown eyes. She has a septum piercing and a tattoo on one of her arms of a dragonfly. David has a brown mullet and moustache and blue eyes. He wears a baseball cap with sunglasses perched on top. — Justyce Crossman performed CPR on fiance David Robinson for 20 minutes after he had a heart attack

A woman who saved her fiance's life with CPR after he had a heart attack at 21 years old said it had brought them "closer together" and inspired her to be a paramedic.

Australian-born Justyce Crossman was hiking in Wales with her partner David Robinson, from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, when he collapsed and became unresponsive.

The 23-year-old performed CPR on him for 20 minutes until emergency responders arrived. He was airlifted to hospital and is expected to fully recover.

Crossman said: "We love each other so much and this has brought us closer together - he has a debt to pay with me now."

The pair met in Crossman’s hometown of Bendigo in Victoria in 2023 after Robinson travelled to play cricket as part of an exchange programme with his club, before getting engaged in 2025.

"Ever since we've been together, we've never left each other's side, we do everything together," she said.

Supplied Justyce and David hiking in a moorland. Both are wearing coats. Justyce has her hair in a grey headband. David is wearing a woolly hat. — The pair had been hiking in Wales when Robinson collapsed due to an undiagnosed heart condition

The pair had been hiking in Halfren Forest, Llanidloes, in March when Robinson collapsed, but he said he could not remember what happened.

Crossman said: "He wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse - I thought I was going to lose him."

She had previously studied nursing for a year before dropping out of the course - but remembered how to do CPR.

Two crews from the Wales Air Ambulance charity arrived and Robinson was shocked with a defibrillator to stabilise his condition.

He was admitted to Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan, where he was found to have an anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA).

Very few adults have the rare birth defect because it is usually fatal in infants, according to the British Journal of Cardiology.

Supplied Justyce and David standing in front of a row of houses with a pink flower bush behind them. — Justyce has been inspired to consider a career as a paramedic after the experience

However, Robinson said he had been told by surgeons he was not expected to have another heart attack and had been "keeping busy watching the cricket" during his recovery.

His family are fundraising to install more public defibrillators.

Crossman has been awarded a certificate for her actions by NHS Wales as part of its Save a Life campaign, which aims to raise awareness of CPR.

She said the experience had inspired her to train as a paramedic.

"Even though it was so scary and took so much out of me, I feel like I could do it again for somebody else.

"It was such a good feeling to save his life and I think it's my calling," she said.

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