A Hampshire ambulance volunteer has been hailed a hero for speedily coming to the aid of a boy who nearly severed his nose after crashing through a glass front door.

Eleven-year-old Joe Dennehy tripped as he ran up the front steps of his home in Beech Road, Alresford, after playing football. His mother, Susie, said: "I was just going downstairs and the glass side panel of the door shattered. At first, I thought it was a football coming through.

"Then I saw Joe. He just stood there with his red Saints football fleece to his face. When I took the fleece away I could see what had happened. He had almost severed his nose. It was just hanging on by the septum. He was so brave. There were no tears. I think he was more concerned about what his dad would say about the door."

Joe's nine-year-old brother, Will, kept his cool and rang 999. Mrs Dennehy was instructed by the ambulance operator to check Joe had not severed his jugular vein.

She had just put the phone down when Simon Marchant, an Alresford-based Hampshire ambulance community responder, arrived.

Mrs Dennehy said: "You often read in the papers of how long it takes for the emergency services to arrive and how Britain is turning into a nation that doesn't care.

"Well, within five minutes of dialling 999, Simon, the first responder, was on the scene and five minutes after that the ambulance arrived.

"I am just so grateful to these three guys for their brilliant help at what was a traumatic time. I think they are all heroes, especially Simon, who is a volunteer and was so quick to arrive and so effective and calm in taking over."

Joe was taken to Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital for stitches before being transferred to Odstock Hospital in Salisbury for plastic surgery.

The Year 6 pupil was back at Sun Hill Junior School within days, although banned from playing football for a few weeks.

Mr Marchant, a cabinet-maker, is a founder member of Alresford community responders, which was the first scheme to be set up in Hampshire in 1999.

The 10-strong team, which gets called out two to three times weekly, is currently on the lookout for new members to provide a seven-day, 24-hour service. Full training is provided by Hampshire Ambulance Service.

The member on duty minds a "kit", which includes oxygen, a defibrillator for heart-attack victims, bandages, radio and pager for callouts.

Asked why he volunteered, Mr Marchant said: "It's just good to feel you can do something. Obviously, there is the practical side, but at other times you are of more help to the relatives, who feel happier when someone arrives to take over the situation. It can be very reassuring for them."

Keith Boyes, county co-ordinator, said: "Community responders are really valued members of Hampshire Ambulance Service and their contribution to their local community in providing care quickly is invaluable."

He said there were now 35 first responders schemes across Hampshire, adding: "When people dial 999 for an ambulance, the communications centre has a statutory duty to send an ambulance, but where there is a community responder scheme, it gets sent out as well.

"Because volunteers live locally, they arrive very quickly and render first aid with the tools they have until the arrival of an ambulance."