AMBULANCE chiefs have highlighted the crucial role played by volunteers who provide life-saving support in rural areas.

Dozens of people in hard-to-reach villages across East Lancashire have been recruited as Community First Responders (CFRs), who can often get to emergency patients quicker than fully-trained paramedics.

They have been given basic training in defibrillation and oxygen therapy, so can give potentially life-saving treatment while an ambulance crew travels to the scene.

Katie McIvor, from Harrop Fold, has been a CFR since 2009, when she was called out to help a cardiac arrest patient on her first shift.

The 27-year-old said: “It was a bit of a baptism of fire. I was two streets away so was literally there within minutes.

“Just after I’d given the shock with the defibrillator, the ambulance crew arrived. The man was starting to show signs of life and the paramedics said ‘you’ve just saved his life’.”

In cardiac arrest cases, for every minute that passes without defibrillation, the chance of survival decreases by 14 per cent.

Katie completed four days of training, and she now helps train new recruits.She said: “You just need to be on call for a minimum of four hours a week. The idea is we can go about our daily lives, and I bake while I’m on call.

“I see it as being part of the community and being there for others.

I’d love to think there was someone who lived locally to my parents or grandparents to do the same.”

North West Ambulance Service has highlighted the work of Katie and other CFRs to mark Volunteering Week, which runs until today.

Mark Evans, community resuscitation manager for Cumbria and Lancashire, said: “CFRs play an integral role in communities and offer immediate first aid to people prior to the ambulance arriving.

“They are not there to replace the ambulance service but to support and provide care in the initial minutes of an incident.”

For more information see www.nwas-responders.info