15928/01Caring Malmesbury neighbours rushed to help pensioner Bill Poole when he collapsed to the ground with pneumonia.

Neighbour Rachel Wilson discovered the 73-year-old in a heap near his home in St John's Street around 11.30am on April 11.

The florist, who had been convalescing from an abdominal operation at the time, said: "I was coming back from a walk with the dog and I saw him in a heap.

"I suddenly realised it was Bill. His face was blue, his eyes were glazed and his breathing was laboured. I rang 999 and they talked me through the ordeal."

Mr Poole was airlifted to Great Western Hospital in Swindon, where he is now recovering.

The retired factory worker, who is unmarried, has lived in St John's Street all his life. He worked in a chicken factory in Sutton Benger.

Miss Wilson, 40, said she took instructions from ambulance personnel while checking Mr Poole's breathing. An unknown man who was passing by at the time helped her.

And a woman walking her dog stood at the end of the street to indicate where the paramedics should go.

The paramedics ordered the Air Ambulance for Mr Poole. He was taken to the nearest landing spot St Aldhelms Mead. A helicopter crew took just five minutes to fly from Chippenham, where they were carrying out a police operation, to the field in Malmesbury.

Six minutes later the crew whisked the pensioner to Great Western Hospital in Swindon. He was taken to the accident and emergency unit, before being moved to intensive care.

Miss Wilson said: "When they got the air ambulance, I thought oh my god, that is serious. Before the ambulance arrived I kept saying to Bill, can you hear me? I was really thought he would die.

"Bill has always lived on his own. He is a very sweet person. There has been so much concern from people around the street that his neighbour Ann Mason has put a blackboard in her window to inform people of his condition. This is a really good community and people do care."

Mrs Mason, a friend of Mr Poole for nine years, said: "Bill fetches our newspapers, and he often visits 84-year-old Stanley Edwards to make sure he is okay, as well as an 83-old-woman in the street. There are lots of people who are missing him.

"He also likes to grow runner beans, which he puts through our letterboxes."

Mrs Mason, a receptionist at Barley Mow dental care centre in the Horsefair, received the call from Miss Wilson to come to Mr Poole's aid while she was working.

She said: " I ran down the street. I have never run so hard. Bill had not been well for about four or five days before. I thought he had a chest infection and tried to persuade him to go to the doctor, but being an independent man he didn't want to.

"Since going into hospital Bill has had a tracheotomy and is recovering. He is talking and teasing nurses and is desperate to get out of bed."

Mrs Mason is keeping the neighbourhood informed with daily blackboard updates on Mr Poole's condition.