A Heartwatch team member has helped save a man's life - less than three days after qualifying.

Margaret Jarvis joined Heartwatch on Saturday and was a last-minute replacement on the Mersea Island First Responders' night rota.

Essex Ambulance control called her just after 7am yesterday.

Within minutes she was helping an elderly man who was suffering severe chest pains at his island home.

"I was just coming to the end of the 6pm to 8am shift and said to my husband, Dec 'Thank goodness no-one's been taken ill during the night'. He said the shift was not over yet, and within a couple of minutes the phone rang.

She found the man, who has had a history of heart problems, conscious and able to talk. Ensuring he had taken his medicine, she made him comfortable, reassured his wife and waited for the ambulance.

Colchester General Hospital today said the man was "comfortable".

Mrs Jarvis, 52, of Langwood, West Mersea, won praise from co-ordinator John Parr: "I think it is marvellous - the fact that she has turned out like that, at a moment's notice, on her first duty.

"She was actually showering at the time, and she had to go out wet and drip dry! It just goes to show how our people do turn out - nothing stops them. I am very pleased for her that she got a call on her first duty."

He compared her experience with another First Responder, a locally-based London fireman, who had to wait 11 months for his first emergency call.

Mrs Jarvis, an administration manager at Rolfe East estate agency, said: "I have taken on the task because I want to help people where I can, and because I know minutes count when you are seriously ill."

Island employers are being encouraged to followed Rolfe East's example and allow staff on Heartwatch duty to attend call-outs.

In the 15 months since its creation by Essex Ambulance Service, Mersea Heartwatch - on duty 24 hours, seven-days-a-week - has been called out more than 50 times.

With the nearest ambulance station at Stanway ten miles away, the volunteers, just a few minutes from anyone on the island, provide a speedy service, vital to heart attack victims.

Anyone from Mersea keen on joining the Heartwatch scheme should call co-ordinator John Parr on 01206 384862 for more details.

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