A group of volunteers from Breckland who spare their time to save others have reported their busiest year to date.

Attleborough Community First Responders (CFRs) attended 394 incidents in 2013, slightly more than the 387 missions in 2012.

The group was set up in 2006 with help from the British Heart Foundation, which donated a defibrillator and a grant from Breckland District Council.

Attleborough Town Council purchased a second defibrillator for the group.

A majority of the time, the CFRs are first on the scene. In 2012, the CFRs were called to 100 patients who were suffering from chest pains, 58 with breathing problems and 15 cardiac arrests.

In June, Andy Housego, a teacher at Wymondham College who coordinates the CFRs, was called to a home in the town where grandfather Peter Chumbley had stopped breathing.

After one shock from the defibrillator, Mr Chumbley started to breathe again. He was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where he stayed in intensive care for two days. He suffered two further cardiac arrests and was discharged eight days later.

Mr Chumbley and his wife, Heather, were so grateful for Mr Housego's help that they tracked him down to deliver a personal thank you.

The CFRs attend 999 calls where an ambulance is more than five miles away or if the control room asks them to attend.

From April to September 2013, CFR groups have volunteered more than 137,000 hours of their time across the east of England. Of those, around 41,380 were in Norfolk.

To get involved, email responderadmin@eastamb.nhs.uk or call 01954 712400