A DOCTOR running the Great North Run sprang into action to save a fellow runner when he collapsed during the half marathon race.

Consultant in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, Dr Chris Johnson, was running with his Army Reservist team 201 Field Hospital, when he put his training into practice at the six-mile mark where the runner had collapsed.

As a medic with the Great North Air Ambulance, Dr Johnson has been trained to provide immediate medical assistance to patients at the scene of an emergency and helped resuscitate the runner with a defibrillator.

He said: “There was a police unit nearby and they brought a defibrillator, which was really the thing that saved his life. He got a couple of electric shocks from the defibrillator and his heart started to beat again.”

And after handing the patient over to the specialist teams at the Freeman Hospital, the ambulance crew dropped Dr Johnson back to the point in the run where he had stopped, to finish his race.

He completed the run in three hours and 59 minutes after taking one hour and 45 minutes out of the race. The patient is recovering at the Freeman Hospital.