A Bridge pub landlord kept a window cleaner alive with 8 minutes of CPR in the rain. SECAmb's Kent awards reunited them and marked 1,030 years of service.

A pub landlord who kept a window cleaner alive with eight minutes of CPR in the pouring rain has been honoured by South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), the trust that answers 999 calls from Sevenoaks, at its Kent awards.

René Renault, landlord of the Red Lion in Bridge, near Canterbury, received a Chief Executive’s Commendation for Honouring Public Service. Joe Carver went into cardiac arrest while working at the pub on 14 November 2025. After hospital treatment and cardiac rehabilitation he made a full recovery and is back at work, the trust said.

The ceremony at The Orangery in Maidstone on Thursday 29 October brought the two men together with the people who handled the rest of that day: Emergency Medical Advisor Caitlin Davis, who answered the 999 call, and Prudence Moore, Mollie Smith and Teresa Morris, the ambulance colleagues who cared for Joe at the scene. Thanet Operational Team Leader David Latham, who nominated René for the commendation, joined them.

“Finding out that Joe made a full recovery is an incredible miracle,” René said. “We are now raising money for an extra defibrillator so that our community is better prepared if something like this happens again.”

Why the first minutes fall to whoever is there

René kept going for eight minutes. In the Sevenoaks postcodes, the wait for an ambulance on the most urgent, immediately life-threatening calls is usually longer than that.

Figures SECAmb released to us under the Freedom of Information Act last month put the mean category 1 response in 2025/26 at 12 min 18 sec in TN13 (Sevenoaks town), 14 min 32 sec in TN14 (Otford and Shoreham), 12 min 44 sec in TN15 (Kemsing and Seal) and 14 min 36 sec in TN16 (Westerham). The national standard is a mean of seven minutes, and the trust-wide figure was 8 min 17 sec. The full breakdown is in our report: Sevenoaks ambulance times: up to twice the 7-minute target.

That gap is the time a passer-by, a colleague or a landlord fills, with a call handler like Caitlin on the line and, where there is one, a defibrillator.

The other commendations

Commendations went out in five further categories:

  • Acting with Courage: Community First Responder Warren Fassenfelt.
  • Demonstrating Kindness: Community First Responder Tutor Jody Love.
  • Excellence in Clinical Practice: Amy Igweonu, Danny Speed, Harry Kirkby, Emma Webber and Ian Spencer, for a digital project that changed how the trust communicates with patients. SECAmb says it delivered more than £200,000 in calculated efficiency savings and gave more than 1,000 hours back to patient care.
  • Celebrating Inclusivity: EDI Advisor Anthony Walker-Banfield.
  • Recognising Voluntary Service: Wellbeing Volunteer Bob Sheridan.

1,030 years of service

More than 140 colleagues and their families attended an evening that, the trust said, marked 1,030 years of service. Forty-six colleagues were recognised for long service, and Patrick Fagan and Roger Hext each received an award for 40 years, eight decades between them.

Mrs Victoria Wallace DL, Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, presented The King’s Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct on behalf of the King. The ceremony also remembered seven colleagues who died in service during the past year.

SECAmb was formed on 1 July 2006 from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex ambulance trusts. It covers 3,600 square miles and more than 4.9 million people across Kent and Medway, Surrey, East and West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and part of north-east Hampshire, runs NHS 111 in Kent and Sussex and employs more than 4,000 staff at 60 sites. Membership of the trust is free, and members get a newsletter with health tips and invitations to its events (secamb.nhs.uk).

Earlier this week SECAmb also thanked a four-year-old Kent girl for her help on her mum’s 999 call: Delilah, 4, gets bravery award for helping on mum’s 999 call.