GREAT Western Ambulance Service is appealing for more community responders in Nailsea and Clevedon.

GREAT Western Ambulance Service is appealing for more community responders in Nailsea and Clevedon.

Community responders are trained to give life-saving care to patients before an ambulance arrives.

Volunteers are called out for a range of incidents from cardiac arrests to asthma attacks and have vital equipment including defibrillators to administer first aid.

Nigel Brown, of Leighwood Drive in Nailsea, has been a community responder for two years and is encouraging others to take it up.

The father-of-three said: "I would definitely recommend it. It's nice to be able to help others. It's rewarding and you get a lot of personal satisfaction from the role.

"It feels good to be doing something for free. Some weeks I don't get called out and others you can be inundated, but they only call me out to incidents within a three mile radius of where I live."

Nigel, aged 48, who works as a prison custody officer for Reliance, is also a retained firefighter and is used to dealing with emergency situations on a daily basis.

His brother Steve, from Yatton, is also a community responder. Volunteers do not need to have any previous experience of medical care and full training is given.

Anyone interested can email Nicolle Vakos at nicolle.vakos@gwas.nhs.uk or call

01179 280485 for an application form.