A woman has been praised for potentially saving her husband's life after calling for emergency help when he was suffering chest pains.

Mundesley first responder Mario Stango was able to get to Tony Oram's house within four minutes of him receiving the call from control.

Mr Oram, a grandfather-of-three, was finally able to meet Mr Stango to thank him today and said: 'If my wife, Barbara had not made the initial call I would not have been here.'

Mr Oram, 74, spent 15 days at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after he collapsed at his home in Sea View Road, Mundesley and suffered two cardiac arrests.

Mr Oram, a former hosiery manager, said: 'I want to thank everybody. The NHS gets such bad press. I just feel I cannot thank them enough - Mario, the ambulance team, the air ambulance, the hospital. I cannot fault them with anything.'

Modest hero, Mr Stango said he was just a cog in a wheel and part of the team.

He received a call to go to Mr Oram's home at 11.41am on February 14 and arrived at 11.45am.

He said: 'Mr Oram was sitting in the lounge and Barbara was there. She did well to ring - never hang back if someone is suffering chest pains.

'As a first responder we are trained to deal with life-threatening conditions, I did observations on Tony.

'The ambulance service arrived to take Tony to hospital. But as he sat up he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. We shocked Tony. 'The first shock did not do anything, but after the second shock Tony came to life.

'But a few minutes later Tony went back into arrest. When he came back again, he was fighting for his life. I'd never seen anyone as strong as Tony.'

The air ambulance took Mr Oram to the NNUH and he does not remember anything until waking up in a high dependency unit about 5pm.

Community first responders are volunteers who are trained by the ambulance service to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work.