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EXCLUSIVE: 'My son, 18, dropped dead in the street - one small change could have saved him'

The 'defibrillator mum' will be honoured with the British Empire Medal for creating a huge impact on UK service cars due her accessibility campaign the result of the tragic loss of her beloved son.

[Naomi Rees-Issitt and husband Jem sat inside a Police car book with their portable defibrillator.]

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Creating a huge impact, Northumbria Police are now the first UK force to have a portable defibrillator in every Response vehicle.(Image: Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)

Dubbed the 'defibrillator mum,' Naomi Rees-Issitt was reduced to tears after being recognised for her campaign work to make the life-saving technology accessible.

When Naomi Rees-Issitt received an envelope displaying a royal stamp on her son Jamie Reess birthday, it felt heaven sent. She says: "When I opened it I couldn't believe it. I rang my mum straight away and she started crying".

The letter, sent in November, 2025, informed her that she had been awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year's Honours List, for services to defibrillator training and awareness. She says: "I'm sure Jamie made sure I got the letter on that day".

Naomi, 46, has been campaigning tirelessly to have easily accessible defibrillators installed in schools since Jamie, 18, died, after collapsing watching a New Year's Eve fireworks display in 2001 and going into cardiac arrest. He was minutes away from a defibrillator, locked in a nearby school where he and his brother Callum, now 25, had been pupils - which could have been used to save his life.

[Image of Naomi Rees Issitt and husband near installed defibrillator on a high street.]

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Naomi's GoFundMe page raised thousands overnight for her cause.

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Naomi says: "No-one could get to it. Every minute is crucial after a cardiac arrest. When Jamie first collapsed he had a 70 percent chance of survival. But after 20 minutes that drops to just one percent. By the time a defibrillator was brought from Rugby police station it had been 24 minutes. There is every chance he would have been here today if a defibrillator had been brought to him within 10 minutes".

Naomi had been celebrating her 10 year wedding anniversary in Canada with her husband, Jeremy, when her ex-husband phoned to tell her what had happened. She had no idea that this devastating news would be the trigger for saving dozens of lives.

Jamie's organs saved five lives and, since then, Naomi and her family have made it a personal crusade to install as many defibrillators as they can, as his legacy. In turn, this has saved dozens more lives. They are also fighting to get them installed in every UK police car. Naomi, of Rugby, says: "Jamie's death is very difficult to come to terms with. When the defibrillator was eventually brought to him they managed to restart his heart in the ambulance - yet we lost him, because his brain had been starved of oxygen for too long. That's unbearable".

Jamie had been watching fireworks at a friends house, when he suddenly collapsed on the pavement outside. He was taken to University Hospital Coventry, where he was put on life support. But tests showed he wouldnt recover and he died five days later, on January 5th 2020. Naomi says: "Jamie had signed the donor register three times - at 16, 17 and 18 - and his wallet was even on his hospital bed with his donor card in it".

His death also acted as a call to arms for his family. Naomi explains: "We were sitting in the front room in our house with other family members for days on end, still in complete shock. I felt pure devastation. What on earth was I going to do now without my son? It felt like our whole world had gone, and there was so much anger there too".

[Son Jamie cuddling their family dog.]

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Tragically, Jamie had suffered a heart attack aged 18 whilst at a New Years Eve party at a friends in 2022.

"We needed something to focus on. I had a conversation with Callum and we knew we now had a choice. We could pull the quilt over our heads, give up and wait for our lives to be over, or keep going and try and make some sort of change. So we decided to make change". She continued to say: "I didnt want there to be anger. Jamie was the most positive person on the planet, a lad that was always chilled out. He loved fishing. He would have hated any anger".

She explained: "He would have wanted us to channel that energy into change, instead of blame. So that's what we did. Callum and I started talking about raising enough money to put the school defibrillator in a cabinet outside, instead of it being locked inside. So, we set up a GoFundMe page and raised 3,000 overnight".

"By March that year we had raised 12,000 and we had installed our first three defibrillators at Rugby College, where Jamie had been training to be a plumber, at a local pub, and outside a local electrician's in an industrial park". She shared that "It felt good to be doing something positive, and lots of local people wanted to help".

The OurJay Foundation, started in Jamies memory, was granted charitable status in October 2022 , so it could apply for grants. By that time it had installed 56 defibrillators. A number of family members - including Jamie's dad Gavin Rees, 49 - are charity guardians. And, to date, the OurJay Foundation, has installed 330 defibrillators in UK communities.

[Image of an OURJAY Defibrillator cabinet.]

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Naomi has saved 24 lives since the loss of her son.

Naomi continues: "We get feedback from the police, the paramedics and sometimes even the families of people we have saved. We were told about a defibrillator being used on a young girl who had gone into cardiac arrest following a seizure". She adds: "I was also contacted by a lady whose mum had collapsed in the middle of the road. She passed away five days later in hospital due to complications, but it gave them five extra days with her and a chance to say goodbye. That family went on to raise money at their mums funeral to install another defibrillator".

"The 25th life the defibrillators have saved was just a few weeks ago, when a lady collapsed outside Rugby Town Hall. The police picked up one of our defibrillators on the way to her and we heard afterwards that she had survived. People ask me if it gives me comfort. Nothing can comfort me. But when I hear about these lives being saved, I feel pride not in myself, but in Jamie. Each defibrillator makes me think of him. His voice and his face are out there, and he has saved another life".

"That's where the pride is we're educating people and taking the fear out of using defibrillators," she adds. Naomi also knows that all the transplants using Jamies organs were successful. A little girl received his liver. She adds: "Because of Jamie, that little girl has just celebrated her fourth Christmas and that means a lot to us".

The OurJay Foundation has also provided 200 portable defibrillators, which have been distributed between gyms, community centres and police forces across the UK. A meeting with Dame Diana Johnson in March last year resulted in Home Office funding for a dozen vehicles in each police force to have defibrillators.

[Image of Jamie with pet lizard.]

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"He had a bearded dragon pet named Luther after Idris," shared Naomi.

And Naomi is meeting with Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones in March and hopes to move that forward. She said: "One of the things that is difficult to come to terms with, is that the police car drove past two defibrillators in community centres to get to Jamie that night. It wasted valuable minutes, which in cardiac arrest is the difference between life and death". Hopefully, her campaigning for better training and awareness means that would not happen today.

Naomi is delighted that her work in Jamies memory has now been honoured. She laughed: "Idris Elba also got his knighthood in this year's honours list, and he was Jamie's favourite actor. He had a bearded dragon pet named Luther after Idris!". It will be presented to Naomi before the Royal garden party, to be held at Buckingham Palace in May. She says: "Nothing eases the pain, Jamie was such a bright light - but it makes me realise how much difference he's still making and we get comfort from that".

Jamie's stepdad Jeremy, 49, a railway engineer and trustee of the charity, alongside Xavana Reddock, Jamie's aunt, Tracey Brand, his godmother, and Callum, says: "Im proud to be a trustee for Jamie's foundation and to play a small part in the life saving changes that his legacy is creating in his memory. I just wish he was still here".

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