Mark King has worked tirelessly since his son’s tragic death and now wants to set up a unique centre in his name
Mark King with a photo of his son, Oliver King
A campaigning Liverpool dad has revealed more details about his plans for the country’s first cardiac testing and prevention centre, which he hopes will be in the home city of his late son. Oliver King was just 12 when he died in 2011 after suffering a cardiac arrest during a swimming lesson at King David High School in Wavertree.
Oliver died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS). In his memory, dad Mark, 63, set up the Oliver King Foundation a year later and has helped to deliver more than 7,000 defibrillators across the country.
He estimates more than 80 lives have been saved due to the work of the foundation in his son’s name. Mark was honoured with an OBE for his services last month and revealed his desire to create the UK’s first centre to hold specialist cardiac testing facilities.
Speaking to the ECHO, Mark has now urged Liverpool Council to help the foundation make their dreams a reality and get to work on a building for the proposed centre.
Mark said: “We’ve got plans for a wellness centre. I hate this word rehab, so it’s gonna be called the wellness centre.
“We’ve applied to the council, they’ve earmarked six sites. Hopefully, we’ll get one.”
Since the foundation was established in 2012, Mark has personally delivered all the defibrillators to schools, businesses, and sporting venues as far north as Stornoway and as far south as Portsmouth. The foundation, which also provides training to use the machines, has received support from former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher.
Mark said: “The reason behind the testing centre is that we’ll bring kids in and we’ll give them a 12 pad ECG test and we make sure that they’ll get a certificate to say their little hearts are okay, and they can carry on playing football and doing the sport that they love.
“We’re going to get the people who’ve had cardiac arrest and heart attack and have had defibs fitted in the chest, and pacemakers. They’re under the care of hospitals for so long then they get an exercise plan and a diet sheet and told see you later.
Young Evertonian Oliver King, who died aged 12, pictured alongside his dad Mark
“People forget it’s the mental side of it that people are missing. The people who have had the pacemakers and defibs in the chest, they’ve got to go home and sit in the house.
“Where we’ll come along, we’re knocking on the door, and we’re saying ‘no, come to the testing centre.’ We’ll have cardio nurses there, I’m going to get them on the walker machines and they’ll meet like-minded people, there’ll be a café area for them to all chat.
“We’ll get them out in the fresh air and they’ll start living again. It’s a big building that we’re after so we can do a lot of a lot of things inside the building.”
Mark said he also wants to help other charitable organisations to get off the ground and use the centre as a base for them to get started. He added: “Another thing that I found when we were starting the charity is we couldn’t afford premises, so we’re gonna put pods in, and people who are starting out in new charities, they can come in and work from the pods.”
The campaigner shared with the ECHO how he broke Royal protocol when he met King Charles in November during the ceremony, and that he had discussed the proposals with Cllr Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool Council, during a chance meeting. He said he understood a process had to be followed when it came to the allocation of land for the centre.
Mark King proudly shows off his OBE
Mark added: “You know, we’re not saying we want it for nothing, a peppercorn rent or something like that, but we will be investing in doing it up. It’ll be for Liverpool and the surrounding areas and even further afield.
“We’ve been inviting parents to come from everywhere. I want to see defibs as common as fire extinguishers.”
“Our Ol [his son Oliver] gives me the incentive. He never let us down once and we won’t let him down now. I’m only carrying his name, it’s him that’s behind it.
“This wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t passed away, so this is for him. What we put down makes perfect sense.
“There’s a building there. It’s been empty for 10 years or something like that, maybe more? It needs to be reintroduced back into the community and the council have got the power to do that.”
Speaking to the ECHO about Mark’s plan, Cllr Robinson said: “We’re working very closely with them on the kind of options they’ve identified, because it’s going through a lot of that community asset transfer process, and there’s lots of other community groups that also expressed interest in some of these sites. Quite clearly we’ve got to do that in a very methodical, fair way.
“The work Mark and the whole of the Oliver King Foundation do is absolutely phenomenal so one way or another, we want to make sure that we can support them and this can come to fruition. Working through the different options, I’m obviously not going to pledge different pieces of land to different people.
“We’ve got to go through the process absolutely appropriately, but we’re completely committed to making sure they can continue to be not just the great success they are, but the vital and inspirational work we’re doing.”