Volunteers who save the lives of hundreds of people across Lincolnshire have responded to their 100,000th emergency call-out.
The Lives First Responder scheme reached the milestone just before Christmas.
It marks a huge victory for the hundreds of volunteers who give up their time to administer life-saving first aid to sick and injured people in their community.
The charity estimates that this means at least a thousand lives have been saved.
Steve Hyde, a first responder and fundraising, marketing and recruitment manager for the charity, said: “Attending 100,000 call-outs is a big thing for us.
“It really pushes home how important Lives is as a charity for a county as rural as Lincolnshire and it means that we’ve gone out and treated 100,000 people.
“The first responders are the ultimate volunteers for their community. We always say to them after the training that someone at some point in their community will be extremely grateful they went through the training.”
Lives first responders are trained and equipped to provide emergency care to patients suffering breathing difficulty and choking, collapse, chest pain and cardiac arrest.
They also attend road accidents and other 999 call-outs.
Lives was formed in 1975 by two Lincolnshire GPs, with membership limited to volunteer doctors.
In 1999 the First Responder service was launched and membership was extended to include paramedics, nurses and members of the public trained to give basic life support and defibrillation.
One of Lives’ key goals is to reach and treat cardiac arrest patients within six minutes of an emergency call.
Charity organisers are now appealing for more people to join up as well as extra funding.