STORES known for their handy locations and long opening hours could soon be earning a reputation for saving lives.

From now on, customers of Spar branches in Stokesley and Hutton Rudby, in North Yorkshire, will be treated for heart attacks by the shops' assistants.

When they dial 999 and ask for an ambulance, the stores will also be alerted and will send specially-trained staff to perform resuscitation in the vital moments before the professionals arrive.

The initiative, involving 16 workers from the two shops, was the brainchild of Alan Crosskill, a former ambulance worker and member of the Stokesley Rotary Club.

With support from Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) and the British Heart Foundation, the club started an appeal to raise £5,000 for two defibrillators, used to regulate the heartbeat following a heart attack.

Volunteers were sought from among the Spars' staff, who were trained in basic resuscitation by Tenyas instructors.

Mr Crosskill said the scheme ties in with a national initiative to involve the community in treating heart attack victims.

"Because of the response times it is required to meet, the NHS set up the First Responder Scheme to get people in strategic locations to act as first responders before ambulance crew arrives," he said.

Mr Crosskill said he was completely confident of the shop workers' abilities.

Barry Milburn, owner of the Hutton Rudby Spar, said: "We thought it was a very worthwhile local thing to do. The training was superb and my girls all really enjoyed it."