THE heroic actions of three quick-thinking friends saved a cyclist's life when he collapsed on a Worcestershire road.

The man was cycling along Fish Hill near the Cotswold village of Broadway when he collapsed.

Fortunately he was spotted on the side of the road by friends Katie Nightingale and Gemma Guedes, who were only travelling down the road by chance after taking a wrong turn.

They spotted him receiving CPR from a fellow cyclist and immediately remembered that there were defibrillators kept at the nearby Farncombe Estate, where they both used to work.

They called ahead to alert the business of the situation and were met by security supervisor Tony Haines, of Pensham, near Pershore, who had grabbed a defibrillator.

They dashed back to the stricken man with Mr Haines - an experienced St John Ambulance volunteer - in tow and used the defibrillator to re-start his heart.

He was then rushed to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, where grateful medics confirmed the cyclist would not have survived without the defibrillator and the friends' quick-thinking actions.

Miss Nightingale, of South Littleton, near Evesham, said: "Gemma came over to my house to take my puppy for a walk.

"We couldn't decide to go, and all of a sudden I thought of Dover's Hill so I just said, 'let's go there'.

"I went a different route but I missed the turn for the car park so I went to turn around.

"We passed the cyclists and on the way back we saw this one man was on the floor and the other was starting CPR."

Miss Nightingale remembered there were three defibrillators on the Farncombe Estate, just two miles away, and told the riders she would go and get one.

"It just immediately sprang to my mind," added Miss Nightingale. "They were just extremely grateful and Worcestershire Royal Hospital, where he was airlifted to confirmed without the defibrillator he wouldn't be here.

"It was extremely scary at the time but Tony was the main hero."

Mr Haines said he was glad the estate had the vital life-saving equipment . Both he and St John Ambulance are now urging more places, especially in isolated rural locations, to get equipment of their own.

Mr Haines said: "We gave the man a single shock and his heart restarted. Within a few minutes he was talking, it was amazing.

"This incident just goes to show what a difference a defibrillator can make and I would urge as many organisations as possible to have one on hand in case of emergency."

Tim Rose, estates manager at Farncombe, said: "I was delighted we were able to help in this dramatic situation."