AS paramedic Charlie Goldsmith pulled back in to the ambulance station after a long shift on Monday evening, there was a familiar face waiting to meet her.

The last time Charlie had seen David Childs he was in a hospital bed. This time he was back on his feet and had come to thank her, for saving his life.

“I still can’t quite believe I’m standing here,” said an emotional David.

“She’s my hero and I just can’t thank her enough.”

58-year-old David was driving in to the Asda car park in West Swindon with his son when he felt an excruciating pain in his chest – a blood clot had gone to his heart.

“Within seconds my son said ‘Dad, you look dreadful’ and I felt it too.

“He called for an ambulance. They've told me since that I had minutes to live.”

Fortunately for David, paramedic Charlie and her partner, Arron Dalby, were waiting at a stand by point at the very same store – they were on the scene in under 30 seconds.

Charlie said: “We have allocated standby points distributed around and it just so happened at that moment we were at Asda in West Swindon.

“I pulled the wrong way into the car park and was about to turn around when I saw David’s son waving his arms.

“It’s very rare that we’re right there at the right time like that.

“We could tell straight away that David wasn’t very well as soon as we pulled up – he was saying all the wrong things.

“We very quickly started giving him the drugs to take the pressure off his heart, probably within a minute of getting to him.

“We phoned ahead to the hospital on the way, they were all waiting for us so he went straight into theatre.”

Choking back tears, David said: “They stayed with me all the time while they did the operation.

“Then Charlie came to see me later that day after I got out.

“She told me it just wasn’t my time to go, that we were both in the right place at the right time, it’s just so hard to get my head round.

“I’d have been at the funeral directors now if it wasn’t for her.”

David, a father of three and a brother to four sisters, was accompanied by his son Nick, his sister Dee and his granddaughter Lexie May when he visited Charlie at work on Monday.

Handing over flowers and baskets of presents, it was obvious how significant the moment was for everyone involved.

Describing what it meant to her to see how well things had turned out, Charlie said: “It’s huge, it’s all very well saying it’s just a job but that’s somebody’s loved one you’ve given back.

“It’s just fantastic to be able to do that for them.”