WHEN Roger Flux felt his chest tighten, he feared that he could be on the brink of a heart attack.

However, as he waited anxiously for help to arrive, his own pager went off.

The message was telling him to attend to a man crippled with chest pains.

The problem was that he was the man in need of help - but was being called out to attend his own emergency.

Qualified paramedic Mr Flux, 66, is one of Hampshire's community responders, who provide medical care until ambulance crews can get to the scene of an emergency.

Luckily a rapid response vehicle was on the scene within minutes, and then an ambulance soon arrived.

Mr Flux was taken to the accident and emergency unit at Southampton General Hospital before being transferred to the cardiac ward.

He was discharged the next day after the false alarm.

Mr Flux, a grandfather-of-three and father-of-two, said: "I had been on call that evening and when I came back I left my pager on.

"I went to bed but woke up in the early hours of the morning with nasty chest pains. My wife called 999.

"I was just about to ask her to get my emergency response bag when my pager went off, telling me to attend to a man with chest pains.

"Then I looked at the address - it was my own."

Despite the seriousness of the incident, Roger managed to see the funny side.

He said: "When the pain eased I saw the funny side of things. The ambulance crews also found it quite funny.

"Working in close contact with all the crews in the area you get to know a lot of them, and I don't think they were expecting it to be me that they would be having to treat.

"Joking aside, it was good to see the effectiveness of the ambulance service from the patient's point of view."

Keith Boyes, head of the Hampshire division of community responders, said: "This incident highlights the need for patients who are suffering from chest pain to contact us urgently. Time is literally a life-saver.

"Over the past few years we have developed volunteer community responder schemes throughout Hamp-shire which are able to provide life-saving interventions to potentially life-threatening incidents.

"The fact that these volunteers are contributing their own time for their local community means that they are able to be at the patient's side in a matter of minutes.

"Community responders are always backed up by an ambulance resource and the swift arrival of the ambulance on this occasion goes to highlight the outstanding teamwork.

"Thankfully Roger did not suffer any serious complaint and he will be able to continue this vital role in the community."

Roger, who runs a health and safety consultancy from his home in Ashdene Road, Ashurst, has worked as a community responder for nearly three years. He is part of a team of ten community responders who fall under the Lyndhurst and District branch. He uses his own transport to get him to incidents, attending calls on his Ducati motorbike.