IT'S comforting news to his family, Sunshine Coast Cricket and concerned strangers that star player Alecz Day is awake and on the mend, if not yet out of the woods.

He is alive because of the immediate life-saving efforts of those who leapt to the aid of the 29-year-old Scorchers all-rounder after his shock collapse at training last week. He remains in intensive care at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital after coming out of his induced coma due to a previously undiagnosed clot in his coronary artery.

Scorchers players Ash Renouf and John Turnbull, along with coach Ashley Holznagel, performed CPR on Day for nearly 15 minutes before an ambulance arrived with a defibrillator to jump-start his heart. Sunshine Coast Cricket Association media officer Pat Drew believes things could have ended up much worse.

And he's right. We can't predict when our health can go pear-shaped. It can happen at home alone, in a shopping centre, overseas on holidays, on a lonely highway …

In the case of a heart problem, it could be vital to our survival in having close by a person who knows first-aid, as well as a defibrillator and someone trained to use it.

The Coast's Emily Counter has been campaigning for more access to defibrillators since CCTV footage of her sudden cardiac arrest at a gym went viral last year. Every school, club, shopping complex, doctor's surgery, stadium and sporting event should have a defibrillator on standby.

And everyone's new year resolution should be to learn first-aid or to organise a refresher course. Your partner, parent, child, neighbour, work colleague or the person in front of you at the checkout may one day be thankful you did.