Bricks & Wheels Appeal: The name of the game is public safety

Not the result they wanted at all. But the fact that they were able to sit and watch the game in safety was due in part to the volunteers from St John Ambulance, who were on hand throughout the day to provide first aid care to anyone who needed it.

A wide range of public events could not take place without the charity providing first aid cover, and at the Riverside it is duty officer Mr Harry Carter who leads a team of 28 St John Ambulance volunteers.

During the game, the volunteers were positioned around the ground and in two first aid rooms, with the back-up of three ambulances, so they were ready to deal with any casualties. Their work did not start when the game kicked-off at 8pm - they were at the ground at 6.25 for their briefing and to set up their equipment.

6.25 - Mr Carter briefs the team and tells everyone where they will be positioned during the game.

He then issues the volunteers covering each corner of the stands with two radios per group, and one to each of the two mobile incident teams. "When we are here we are all St John, we are not from anywhere else, we are just one unit and we work together,'' he says.

"If we get a shout from the ambulance officers to assist, they contact us using the emergency phone and we respond.

"We can communicate through our radios, and if we are needed anywhere in the stadium Mr Ron Turnbull, the safety officer at the club, lets us know and an incident team responds."

"Our policy is to be there within three minutes, but our mobile incident teams know their way round this stadium so well, they're usually there within two or 2."

6.45 - Over an hour until kick-off and the keenest fans have started to arrive. The volunteers continue to prepare for the game and some take up their posts around the ground.

Mr Carter visits Mr Turnbull in the control room. Mr Turnbull says: "St John is invaluable to us. It has volunteers trained to use defibrillators, so they can respond to everything from heart attacks to headaches. They deal with some very serious incidents.

"We had a guy once who had a heart attack. These lads used a defibrillator to save him and he was taken to hospital.

"He was in intensive care for months, but he lived and he came to see me having had a quadruple heart bypass operation, and he admitted that had he had a heart attack at home, he would have been dead.''

"This place would not function without St John Ambulance.''

7pm - Mr Carter goes to check on the volunteers in the second first aid room, known as the East first aid room.

As we made our way there, he explains that he has been a St John volunteer for ten years and that he has been in charge of the St John Ambulance team at the Riverside for a year, covering all events at the ground.

"It's funny because some matches we cover there will be nothing, no incidents at all, but then you seem to get a block of casualties.'' he said.

7.45 - Fifteen minutes before kick-off and all the volunteers have taken up their positions around the stadium and Mr Carter carries out a radio check.

8pm - Kick-off and the Middlesbrough fans are in high spirits.

"If anything happens in among that lot we have to go in and get them out, we have stretchered them out of there in the past,'' says Mr Carter. During the first half, as Newcastle score their first goal, he continues to check on the teams of volunteers around the stadium and first aid rooms.

8.45 - Half-time, and Mr Carter makes his way to the East first aid room for a hot drink.

8.55 - Mr Andrew Tucker, a Newcastle fan, is escorted by a police officer and a steward to the East first aid room with a cut to his eyebrow. At the same time, Mr Carter hears on his radio that a casualty has been taken to the West first aid room.

All St John Ambulance patients are treated with complete confidentiality, but Mr Tucker agreed to be photographed by the D&S Times. He explains that a hot drink was thrown into the Newcastle fans' area, followed by a coin, which hit him on the forehead and cut his eyebrow.

St John volunteer Sue Jackson cleans the wound and dresses it using a sterilised dressing, before he is taken back to his seat.

Mr Carter then makes his way over to the West first aid room, where doctors are examining the other half-time casualty.

9.15 - This is a medical case that requires hospital treatment, so St John volunteers transport the patient in one of its ambulances.

"The team is all very committed. They do this in their spare time as volunteers, and although they're not professionals in the real sense of the word, they work in a very professional way,'' says Mr Carter.

9.45 - Newcastle United score twice in the second half, and, as Middlesbrough snatch a goal back in the final minute, Mr Carter is preparing to clear the ground.

10.20 - Mr Carter leaves the ground to return an ambulance to Billingham before going home.

"Tonight I won't get home until 11pm and I'm at work tomorrow at 8.30, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it,'' he said.

l The St John Ambulance Bricks and Wheels Appeal aims to raise £840,000 to pay for three new Crusader ambulances and a purpose-built first aid training centre in Thirsk. The D&S Times is backing this appeal, which will mean more people get trained in first aid, so more lives can be saved.

The centre is needed not only to train St John Ambulance volunteers, but also individuals, organisations and employee.

The new Crusader ambulances cost £40,000 each and are designed specifically for the charity to fulfil three roles: as a first aid post, as community transport or as an accident and emergency vehicle.

The appeal total currently stands at £280,000, but the charity needs to raise the remainder by 2002.

To make a donation, or to find out more about fundraising events, contact Mr Phil Bustard, the Bricks and Wheels appeal co-ordinater on 01845 521919