A BOLTON nurse who famously saved the life of a football fan has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for her work to make defibrillators more readily available.

Tracey Garde, a cardiac nurse and matron at the Royal Bolton Hospital, made headlines in 2013 after rushing to help resuscitate 79-year-old Blackpool fan Derek Smith. He had suffered a heart attack at the Macron stadium while watching his team take on Bolton Wanderers.

Mrs Garde and two other heroes were honoured with a national award on that occasion and after continuing to dedicate her time to preventing further cardiac-incidents in Bolton, the 52-year-old could be about to pick up another gong.

She has been shortlisted for a St John’s Ambulance Everyday Hero award for her work as chairman of the Bolton Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) Support Group — which has seen more than 120 life-saving defibrillators given out across Bolton and Bury.

Mrs Garde said it was an incident in which former Whites player Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest during a match in 2012 that kick-started the campaign.

She said: “That was the point when we said let’s do something to help with the issue of cardiac arrests.

“So we started raising funds to put defibrillators in schools and teach young people the skills they need if anything like that were to happen.

“If someone has a cardiac arrest and there is a defibrillator at hand, there chances of survival are a lot higher.”

That was the case when Mrs Garde and two others were watching the Bolton vs Blackpool match in 2013 and used a portable defibrillator to save Mr Smith when he fell ill.

She said: “It was just by chance that we were there, obviously being a cardiac nurse helped me know what to do but it was important that there was a defibrillator there.”

She will find out if she has won another award for her efforts at a glitzy ceremony in London in September.