Bee Gees kept golfer stayin' alive

A golfer’s life was saved by his friends singing the Bee Gees song Stayin' Alive while they gave him CPR. Alan Linton collapsed with a heart attack as he played a round of golf in Fife. The 39-year-old owes his life to the fact his friends remembered a TV advert, starring Vinnie Jones, which told people to give chest compressions in time to the 70s disco classic.

On Tuesday, Mr Linton met and thanked the paramedics and the 999 call handler who also helped save him. In a recording of the 999 call from Charleston Golf Course, near Colinsburgh, one of Mr Linton's friends, Paul Pinkney, can be heard shouting: "I'm doing the staying alive thing."



Mr Linton said: "I feel very lucky and overwhelmed that the song saved my life. The song is the reason I'm alive because they used that beat so it's a major contribution to why I'm here. I do like the Bee Gees but it was a bit funny, after I got home, my wee girl started singing that song. I've no idea why, it must have been on the telly, and it brought it all home to me that that was the song that probably saved my life."

Mr Pinkney said: "The ad had been on the week before; it had been on a couple of times. If it hadn't have been for Vinnie Jones you'd have looked at it and gone 'Yeah, whatever' but because he was doing it it just sticks in your head. It came straight to us. I was playing the whole thing in my head. We sang it out loud for a bit. It obviously works."

With news video.