Teenage lifesaver

A young Suffolk-based St John Ambulance cadet has been hailed a hero. Martin Robbins, an 18 year old Cadet from Lowestoft, saved a man's life while walking home.

Martin has been a St John Ambulance Cadet for seven years and first joined to learn basic first aid skills, while helping others.

After completing his shopping recently, Martin took a different route home than normal and chanced upon a large crowd of people, surrounding an unconscious man. He enquired after the gentleman and was told that he was unconscious and not breathing.

Martin quickly took charge of the situation and administered CPR , assisted by a first aider from the Tesco store. The man had started to breathe and regained consciousness on the arrival of the ambulance.

Martin said: 'As many people as possible should join St John Ambulance. Learning first aid is such an important life skill, and you never know when you may need to put it into practice.'

As a member of St John Ambulance Martin is one of over 45,000 volunteers across the UK, who devote over five million hours of service to the community each year.

St John Ambulance is constantly looking for new volunteers to help with providing first aid cover at hundreds of events across the country. 

Over half of the current volunteers are below the age of 25 and as well as providing vital first aid assistance at a number of events they also assist the emergency services at peak times, to help them cope with a sometimes overwhelming demand.

Keith Hotchkiss, Operations Manager for St John Ambulance Suffolk, said: 'We are enormously proud of Martin's actions.

'He is a shining example of the good work our youth members do within the county and is proof that learning first aid skills really can save a person's life.'