A pensioner who collapsed while at the shops was saved by an off-duty nurse who performed CPR.

Chris Mills and his wife Brenda, from Chatham, were out last October when his heart stopped.

The 78-year-old is still alive thanks to quick-thinking actions of four members of the public, including Medway Maritime nurse Rachael Lewis and her partner who took turn to perform the life-saving compressions.

Speaking about the horror ordeal, Brenda said: “He just went down like a tonne of bricks.

“I tried to get him around and feel for a pulse and luckily for us there was an off duty nurse coming back from Starbucks with her family, and she just took over."

It took just seven minutes for the ambulance to arrive and take over from the team and were able to save Chris’ life.

Paramedics shocked him with a defibrillator and he had to undergo a triple heart bypass but is now “feeling even better than before”.

‘I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the incredible teamwork between the nurse who stopped to help, the paramedics who arrived so quickly, and the hospital staff who continued my care...’

On Valentine’s Day, Chris and Brenda have been reunited with the team who saved him that day and are encouraging others to learn CPR.

Chris continued: “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the incredible teamwork between the nurse who stopped to help, the paramedics who arrived so quickly, and the hospital staff who continued my care,”

Hero Rachael Lewis, who is a clinical practice facilitator at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We were able to deliver effective CPR to save Chris’ life.”

Rachael continued: “I would encourage anyone to go out and learn CPR – it might seem like a scary thing to do but the impact can be life-saving.”

This comes after the trust launches it new report revealing they have reached the best survival rates of any ambulance service in the UK for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Paramedic Dave Hawkins explained: "The survival of cardiac arrest is very much a problem which starts in the community. So from the moment someone has a cardiac arrest there chance of survival without of any CPR reduces 10% per minute."

Dave added: “We need to do better and we need the communities help to help us to do better”.

The report hopes to shed a light on a need for more trained members of the public, as in the UK, more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happening every year, and less than one in ten survive.

Sam Kennard, from the British Heart Foundation said "Survival remains low and we have got a long way to go, but what we have found is that early CPR and early defibrillator is what is so critical to giving people the very best chance of survival.”

The heart month campaign aims to encourage more people to learn these life saving skills.

Mr Kennard added: “It takes just 15 minutes to learn CPR using the British Heart Foundations RevivR App, all you need is a smart phone and a cushion.”

The cardiac arrest report showed that 77% of resuscitations could commence due to bystanders attempts of CPR.

SECAmb hope to improve survival rates by having anyone with first aid training sign up to their app GoodSAM, which alerts people to nearby cardiac arrests.

Chris added: “I want everyone to know that learning CPR can make all the difference, because it saved my life.”

Additional reporting by Finn Macdiarmid.