Brett MacLean was 40 minutes into his first skate of the summer, a casual pickup game with friends in Owen Sound, when the 23-year-old former NHL player collapsed on the ice.

MacLean doesn’t remember much from that day on July 2, 2012, when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Two other players immediately rushed to his aid to perform CPR, while a father of one of the players, a local firefighter, retrieved the arena’s automatic external defibrillator.

Tests in hospital later revealed abnormalities with the electrical impulses in MacLean’s heart, ending his pro hockey career.

It was a big blow for MacLean, who was coming off four productive seasons in the American Hockey League and NHL stints with both the Phoenix Coyotes and the Winnipeg Jets. He had been set on becoming a full-time NHL player the following year.

“My plan was to be a professional hockey player,” MacLean, now 28, recalled. “It’s all I wanted to do.”

MacLean has made a full recovery and now lives with an implantable cardiac defibrillator, a small electronic device that monitors his heart and can provide an electrical shock if an abnormal rhythm is detected.

On Sunday morning, he’ll be biking 50 kilometres in the 30th annual Ride for Heart, which raises funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation is trying to raise $6.5 million this year to support about 850 researchers working in Canadian medical institutes, universities and hospitals toward breakthrough treatments.

Upwards of 20,000 people are expected to ride, run or walk along the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway which will be shut until 2 p.m. for the event.

“It helps create more survivors,” MacLean said of the event, which he bikes or runs annually, having been “worry-free” for the past three years.

MacLean said he is now as active as he wants to be, playing pickup hockey once a week and biking or playing tennis on other days.

“I’ve been very lucky,” said MacLean, who recently graduated from the University of Waterloo with a sports business degree and now works in Canadian Tire’s corporate office.

“Knowing that I was going to have to completely change the life that I was living was difficult but as time went on, I decided that I wasn’t going to let this stop me. I was going to challenge myself, be as active as I could be and as long as there were no issues, I would keep doing stuff.”

He’s joined the foundation to advocate for making automated external defibrillators accessible in every school, arena, mall and other public place. He also feels more people should take it upon themselves to learn CPR, because as he knows all too well, an emergency like the one he suffered can happen at any time.

Just five per cent of those who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital survive, according to the foundation. The first seven minutes are crucial, as for every minute a person isn’t treated, their chance of survival decreases by 10 per cent.

MacLean said he was fortunate that those around him knew how to react once he collapsed and did so promptly.

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Pointing to Rich Peverley in 2014 and Craig Cunningham last November, two former NHL players forced to retire after suffering cardiac arrests during or just prior to games, MacLean said it’s important that people don’t take anything for granted, no matter how young or healthy they are.

“Heart disease and stroke kills one Canadian every seven minutes,” he said. “I can use my story to help people become more aware of heart disease and the risk of it. Before, I was guilty of it too, thinking that it only happened to sick people or people that were older. It shows that it can happen to anyone so being prepared is a huge thing.”