Students in Focus
A little ‘dumb luck’ saved Toby’s life, now he’s finding his smarts again at UC
Toby Tyrrell was an academic kid. He topped his class each year at Blayney High School and as he approached the start of Year 12, he had expectations of an ATAR in the 90s. He assumed he would take a gap year, then go on to study at university.
He also loved sport and cross-country running, and would train at home on the treadmill – always at maximum incline.
That’s what killed him. For 23 minutes. At age 16.
It was August 2023, and Toby’s brother Joel – a University of Canberra student, who just happened to be visiting home for the weekend – heard the thud when Toby crashed to the ground next to the treadmill as his heart stopped beating.
Joel screamed for their dad, who was working in a shed 20 metres from their home in the NSW Central West, then started CPR on Toby.
It was 23 minutes before paramedics got Toby’s heart beating again with a defibrillator, starting a longer journey down a different path to university.
Toby recovering in hospital after open heart surgery.
He turned 17 during his two months in a Sydney hospital, where doctors discovered a birth defect that had caused the massive cardiac arrest. Toby had an anomalous left coronary artery – an artery growing out of the wrong part of his heart. It ran between his pulmonary artery and aorta, and about 5 kilometres into that fateful run, the coronary artery became too constricted to keep pumping blood.
Toby had to re-learn to walk and talk in those months in hospital and today he is learning the skills to teach others in his situation, studying a Bachelor of Exercise Physiology and Rehabilitation.
Studying doesn’t come as easy as it once did, and Toby’s path to university changed as he struggled with memory loss.
“My short-term memory is shot,” he says. “You tell me something and in five seconds I’ve forgotten it, and that’s no exaggeration!”
“I’ve learned over the last few years that repetition is the key. If I can just keep hearing an idea over and over again, reading something over and over again, it seems to stick.”
Toby recovered from his heart attack with the help of speech, occupational and physiotherapists, and after open-heart surgery to fix his artery and regular sessions with an exercise physiologist, was back running state-level cross country by 2024, and again the next year.
Toby competing in the NSW All Schools Cross Country.
“I got back into it pretty quickly – if I didn't keep doing my sport, I'd probably go insane, I need to be moving,” he says.
“My heart attack can't happen again. The artery has been snipped and put in the right place, so it's just a normal heart now with a bit of scar tissue on it,” he says.
He made a slower return to study, making the difficult decision to complete Year 12 over two years.
“I really didn't want to spend another year at school, but I thought if I want a good ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), if I want to do something with my life, I've got to take the time,” he says. “That was probably the best decision I've ever made. It gave me the time to recover, and actually do the subjects properly without rushing them and just forgetting them.”
Toby credits supportive teachers at Blayney High School for getting him through some tough times.
“To start, I was really sad. I was like, ‘man, what's happened? I can't do it, I'm just not who I used to be’,” he recalls, describing the experience as “losing my smarts”.
“There were many, many times in Year 12 when I wanted to leave high school. I almost left to be a green keeper at a golf club in Orange, but thank goodness I didn't,” he said.
In 2025, he was one of 40 students in NSW to receive the Minister's Award for Excellence and Achievement, after being nominated by a teacher.
And it was the career’s adviser who first heard about UC’s Snow Scholarship Program, which provides wrap-around support to students who face barriers to higher education. She recommended it to Toby, knowing he wanted to go to university in Canberra – where his brother now lives, having graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science).
The scholarship’s financial support has enabled Toby to put the time he needs into his study – reading and re-reading until new concepts stick in his memory. He also credits Snow Scholarship Program Manager Claire Toepfer with helping him navigate university.
Toby (left) with other Snow Scholars. Photo by Chris Walsh
“I think the scholarship has made university for me. Having a group of people who come from somewhat similar backgrounds just makes me not feel alone,” he says.
“And knowing Claire's there at the Snow Centre – Claire's amazing! She’s there if I need to talk to someone or I need help applying for something. She puts me in touch with all the support services, or anyone I need, like for my special provisions and what have you, she helps me with that, and she's just a friendly face as well.”
His study adjustments include extra time for exams, but at home he employs Post-it notes to help with everyday life.
“Everything I do just seems normal to me, leaving myself sticky notes on my desk two or three times a day – remember this later, do this later – I’m just used to it now. I also set reminders in my phone.
“All that repetition, preparing for the future, or just getting ready for stuff, was drilled into me through my occupational therapists – and my mum, she's always putting stuff on notes as well,” he says.
“At home, there'd be a note on the kitchen bench that says, ‘Toby, don't forget to pack your lunch’, or ‘Toby, there is leftover food in the fridge’, or ‘hang the washing out’ ... so I was already used to the system, I just have to be the one writing the notes now!”
Toby with his parents Michael and Tanya and brother Joel.
When he’s not studying, Toby can be found going for runs around campus – where he lives in an apartment with four other Snow Scholars – or on the treadmill (still at maximum incline), or playing tennis, a long-term passion.
“I’m all about the two Fs – fitness and films,” he says. A cinema buff, Toby counts the Rocky movies among his favourites. Much like Sylvester Stallone’s famous club fighter who takes on a world champion, Toby’s story is about realising his own potential after his life was saved by his brother and a bit of “dumb luck”.
His goal after he completes his degree is to work as a personal trainer.
“I want to work with people going through similar stuff to me and help give back,” he says, envisioning working with others who’ve had to re-learn how to walk.
“I’d get them developing movement patterns and functional skills.”
Three years post-heart attack, Toby says he’s grateful to be alive and life is slowly getting easier.
“My memory is getting better every day but still, you've just got to take each day as it comes,” he says.
“One foot in front of the other, that’s the way I live. You never know – truly – you never know what's going to happen tomorrow.”
Words by Fleta Page.
Planning to start uni in Semester One, 2027? Applications for the next round of Snow Scholarships are open until 12 July. Find out more at the Snow Scholarships web page.