FIVE years ago, Scott Bateman went to the NHS with the idea of using Armed Forces volunteers to provide a rapid response service to assist the Ambulance Service.
A pilot at RAF Lyne-ham, Flt Liet Bateman, 31, had been volunteering for the Wiltshire Ambulance Service in his spare time.
He started the charity First Responder after his father died from a heart attack.
He said: "The response time of the ambulance was in excess of 15 minutes. I felt that this delay was unacceptable and had it been much shorter my father may have survived the attack."
The scheme was launched in October 1998. Five years later there are now eight NHS ambulance services using the First Responder scheme.
He said: "Our role is to help the ambulance service. We go straight in there and deal with the situation before the ambulance gets there.
"We only go to emergency calls which means we don't get tied up at hospitals for hours."
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