The students helping save lives

The phone lights up – a man has collapsed at an address in Cambridge and the East of England Ambulance control room is calling for a crew to attend. Jess Folwell and Laura Herbert, two students in their fifth year of a Medicine degree at Cambridge, are on their initial shift as first responders.

Realising they’re closest to the scene they set off in the response car. As they approach the property more details about the patient come through and they surmise this is probably someone who has had a stroke.

They arrive, unpack the emergency equipment they’re carrying in the back of the car and walk in. An assessment is required but so too is a calm head. The patient is conscious but anxious, as is his wife who made the emergency call.

JESS: "You have to go in and be the calm person in a stressful situation. I know it sounds odd, but having that level of responsibility actually makes me respond by being more calm."

LAURA: "When we got on the scene we knew exactly what we were doing. We have the experience of working in a hospital and know what the procedures are. You have to request an ambulance and sometimes there’s a wait before it arrives so there’s no point in us panicking. Having us there being calm helped both the patient and his wife."

JESS: "We made all the necessary observations so when the ambulance crew did arrive they could take him to hospital straight away."

LAURA: "We made sure his condition didn’t deteriorate…we made sure his heart was still pumping and kept him talking. Because we’ve done some work in hospitals we knew what to expect and when the crew did arrive they were quite pleasantly surprised at how well we’d carried out the checks we needed to make and documented everything."

The medical students who volunteer as first responders give up a minimum of 16 hours a month to assist the ambulance service with call outs. They’ve either completed the first, more theoretical, three years of their degree course, or are on the graduate course. Years 4, 5 and 6 of an undergraduate Medicine degree are the years of clinical training and practice where students get hands-on experience working in a hospital or GP’s surgery. While assisting the ambulance service they get called out to Category 1 and 2 calls which are ranked as the most urgent requiring swift responses. Adam Balogh, who signed up to the graduate Medicine course after taking his first degree in chemical engineering, helped reinstate the First Responders Student Society in April 2026:

"With a cardiac arrest the patient loses ten per cent chance of surviving with each minute that passes without CPR intervention. After 5 minutes there can be irreversible brain damage. So early intervention can make a massive difference. As medical students, we already have a range of skills and knowledge to offer and this initiative allows us to use those in service to the local community. We work within the ambulance service’s governance and follow a clinical framework which we become familiar with from day one of our clinical training. Of course, we can always call on the support of the ambulance service when it’s needed."

The student first responders I speak to all say the same…they see it as privilege rather than a duty to be present while a patient may be at their most vulnerable and most in need of reassurance. The opportunity provides them with the chance to make a difference. Arya Sharma recently found her knowledge and skills came in useful while waiting for a train to catch:

"It was the aspect of helping the community that really appealed to me. I’ve volunteered in soup kitchens before but what this offered was a chance to deploy the skills I have as a medical student. It’s good for our confidence as we have to take the lead. During the recent heatwave I attended to someone who had a medical emergency at a railway station. Knowing I can be of help and remain calm in that kind of situation is a huge boon as well as being a benefit to the wider community."

Freddie Arbuthnott finds the more one-to-one exposure to a patient and their circumstances helps inform any assessment of their health needs:

"The supervision on placement is brilliant and you learn a huge amount, but this is different. You meet people in their own homes, often right at the start of their healthcare journey, before they reach a hospital ward. Seeing where that journey begins, and the circumstances people are dealing with, changes how you understand their health needs. It makes you a more thoughtful clinician."

Jonathan Needle, EEAST Community Response Manager for Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, said while the medical students’ knowledge and experience is incredibly valuable, they worked within the scope of all Community First Responders (CFRs) and medical training was not a requirement for being a volunteer:
"We value all of our responders and appreciate the varied knowledge and experience that they bring. We provide a nationally-recognised, intensive six-day training course which is suitable for people from all kinds of backgrounds – the main requirement is having a sympathetic, caring nature and wanting to help your community."

What’s next for this team? Some of them will graduate next year and become fully qualified doctors. Adam says the society would like to extend its outreach activities by holding first aid workshops at Colleges and the annual Fresher’s Fair. Arya says the skills students learn could be invaluable in providing essential life support to members of the community.

"It’s an amazing skill to have and students are everywhere in Cambridge. If they can attend to someone having a cardiac arrest on the street that could make such a massive difference to that person’s chance of survival. Just knowing you can deal with a situation like that can also really increase your own self-confidence."

Adam adds: "What we've built will not disappear when we graduate. The First Responder Society will continue to recruit new cohorts of volunteers and patients across Cambridge will continue to have a better chance of someone arriving in those first few minutes, ready to help."

If you’re interested in volunteering with East of England Ambulance Service, you can find out more here

Photos: Paul Seagrove

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