A KEEN angler has tragically collapsed and died at his peg before a match at his favourite venue, Bury Hill Fisheries
Ian Caller of Crawley, West Sussex, (pictured above) began to feel unwell as he walked to his peg at Surrey’s renowned Bury Hill Fisheries. He sat down at the lake while his companion went off to help set up the match.
On his return he found the 58-year-old joiner on the ground and immediately started giving him CPR while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Fishery owner David de Vere explained: “The first ambulance arrived within eight minutes of the call but despite Ian receiving CPR and the paramedics working for ages, tragically he couldn’t be resuscitated.
“He has been coming hear for a long time fishing in matches organised by his club Faulkners.
“Obviously the match was abandoned and we rescinded the charge, and I’ve offered them a free session on the lake if they wish to have a memorial match.
“It really was a grim day at the fishery, but maybe it is of some consolation to his family that he died doing something he loved.
“We have discussed since whether owning a defibrillator might have made a difference to the outcome, but given how quickly he received medical attention which couldn’t save him then we doubt that it would have helped,” he added.
Bury Hill Fisheries, seen here being tackle by local ace Russ Evans, has long been one of the south’s most popular accessible venues.
Faulkner’s AC secretary Mark Parrot said: “Ian was a keen angler who had been fishing with us for years and also has a brother Andy who fishes but wasn’t at the match that day.
“Ian had been in the on-site tackle shop on the morning to buy a few bits and seemed fine when chatting to Kenny Collings but began to feel ill walking to the peg.
“Several club members performed CPR and the paramedics arrived quickly and worked on him for at least 40 minutes but tragically couldn’t bring him back.
“Ironically he was due a knee transplant operation this week and had passed the pre-op medical assessment to say he was fit to undergo it, so they obviously didn’t pick up on any heart problem.
“We are likely to take up the owner’s offer of a memorial match – in fact we already hold a 50-peg charity match there in September on behalf of Kids For Cancer for one of our members who had prostate cancer.”
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