Maid Of Honour suffers cardiac arrest at the end of the aisle

As bride Jodie Williams got into position at the end of the aisle on her wedding day, she waited for her older sister Carly to take her place as Maid Of Honour.

But instead, Jodie looked over to see her 34-year-old sister on the ground and thought she had fainted and was being a 'drama queen'.

“I would have never guessed in a million years what was really going on,” Jodie told the British Heart Foundation, adding: “Even when they were all saying she still isn’t coming around, it didn’t really register.”

Carly collapsed suddenly at the July wedding in London, with no-one realising quite what had happened until a wedding guest checked her pulse and realised her heart had stopped.

The mother-of-two credits CPR with saving her life, with a wedding guest she didn’t know, named Susan, starting the procedure while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

Her two cousins - David and Peter - took over from Susan, having just done a first aid course through work, where their boss (Carly’s dad) made them take a course just weeks earlier.

With some quick thinking, they also grabbed the hotel defibrillator to restart her heart.

Speaking to the BHF, Carly admitted she doesn’t remember much of the day - just what she’s heard from others and the photos she’s seen.

“I don’t remember a single thing about the day as I lost some short term memory after my cardiac arrest,” she said, adding she didn’t feel ill at all in the lead up to the big day.

“My two boys were there but my family quickly got them out of the way so they didn’t see everything. 

“They still don’t know how serious it was, I’ve just told them that mummy fainted and they know I’ve had an operation to help me if I faint again,” she revealed, adding she can’t be left alone at the moment.

In hospital, Carly was put into an induced coma for a couple of days and when she came round, her first question was what happened to the wedding, which had been abandoned.

"We’ll just wait and see what she decides. They will get married at some point and she’s just relieved that I’m OK.”

The 34-year-old also expressed her shock at the incident saying: “I was so confused and couldn’t believe I’d had a cardiac arrest at my age.