WEST Midlands Ambulance Service is seeking volunteers to attend 999 calls across Worcestershire.

The Community First Responder posts are unpaid but trained to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work.

Their aim is to reach a potential life-threatening emergency in the first vital minutes before ambulance crews arrive.

The Worcester-based role encompasses a huge patch, including the edges and all the more rural areas around the city, taking in Evesham, Malvern, Droitwich, Alvechurch, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Stourport, Kidderminster and the outskirts of Stourbridge.

The postcodes are B48, B60, B61, B97, B98, DY9, DY10, WR6, WR7, WR8, WR9, WR10, WR11, WR12, WR13, WR14, WR15.

Successful candidates will be trained “to respond to 999 calls on behalf of the trust, to provide basic life support and initial care as a first person on scene until the arrival of an emergency ambulance”. They are expected to commit to a minimum of 20 hours per month.

The advert explains: “A community first responder scheme is made up of volunteers who within the community they live are trained to attend emergency calls on behalf of the ambulance service, provide awareness and training to the community of basic life support and the use of a defibrillator and raise funds to help support their scheme.

“As a volunteer and member of this Community First Responder Scheme you would provide this community-based service, willingly and without pay.

“This role is highly rewarding and offers opportunities to meet new people and learn valuable lifesaving skills through the training provided by West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust.

“Applicants will have a good all-round education, a good level of fitness to perform the role and a full UK driving licence held for at least one year, with no more than three current penalty points.

“Applicants should also have good communication skills and a willingness to learn and help others.”

The closing date for applications is Thursday (March 25).

More information and full eligibility criteria can be found here.