Lance Corporal Harry Pickering and firefighter Stuart Godwin successfully restarted Brian Marshall's heart in Totton Asda

Brian Marshall suffered a sudden cardiac arrest after loading up his car in Asda in Totton.

But in a dramatic twist of fate two men specially trained in first aid leapt to his aid when shocked shoppers desperately yelled for help.

Lance Corporal Harry Pickering and firefighter Stuart Godwin successfully restarted his heart with a vital lifesaving defibrillator installed just months ago.

Today as Mr Marshall recovers in Southampton General Hospital's cardiac unit his grateful family have hailed the two men as heroes.

It comes after emotional scenes at the Maynard Road store as the grandfather's wife Lorraine and daughter Narika Marshall were reunited with the pair and store staff.

And the family urged more businesses and organisations to fit the devices to save more lives.

Mr Marshall, 57, from Haltons Close, Calmore, (pictured with granddaughter Isabelle) collapsed after taking out two elderly neighbours on a shopping trip.

But both off-duty men happened to be shopping there when the drama unfolded at 4pm on Bank Holiday Monday [May 4].

LC Pickering, a marine engineer and dive medic at Marchwood Military Port, arrived first.

He said: “He wasn't breathing and there was no pulse.

“I've been in scenarios in the army like this and your adrenaline kicks in.

“I started chest compressions and shouted for a defibrillator and when it came we ripped his top off.

“He [Mr Godwin] cleared his airway and used the defibrillator and I was carrying on with the CPR.”

Mr Marshall was shocked once with the machine and again after paramedics arrived with their own device.

The former Ford factory worker at Swaythling was taken to Southampton General Hospital in a lifethreatening condition.

Today he recovering in a cardiac care ward.

Mr Godwin, pictured above, a crew manager at the retained Totton fire station and full-time firefighter at Redbridge station specialising in casualty care, said:“My training immediately kicked in “I called for a defibrillator so we kept him alive so that that the paramedics could take over and administered oxygen when they got here.

“It really was a case of two people in the right place at the right time and that the store had a defibrillator.

Mr Marshall's daughter Narika, 24, who tracked down both rescuers following a Facebook appeal before they were reunited yesterday with the help of the Echo, said: “It's just unbelievable.

“They are my heroes and it brings me to tears just thinking about it.

“Dad's very emotional about it and he can't thank everyone enough.

“Mum's very shaken but she's thanking God he is okay.

“It just shows how there should have more defibrillators in public places as you never know when it's going to help.”

Harry Pickering holding the defibrillator that saved Isabelle's granddad.

THE defibrillator used to save Brian Marshall was fitted just months ago.

It came just weeks after the Daily Echo launched a campaign called Save a Life to install more defibrillators in schools following a Romsey schoolboy pupil being saved with one when he suffered a heart attack.

Mountbatten School teachers shocked Sam Mangoro, 16, with the device four times, keeping his heart beating until paramedics arrived.

About that time Asda launched a £500,000 partnership with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to become the first major retailer to offer the lifesaving devices in all its 568 stores.

This includes Totton, Eastleigh and in The Marlands and West End in Southampton.

A spokeswoman for South Central Ambulance Service said: “We know that public access defibrillators, combined with prompt and effective bystander CPR, can help people who are having a cardiac arrest in the first few crucial minutes before an ambulance crew arrives. We commend members of the public who use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).”