A SOUTHAMPTON dentist has received a top honour after saving a motorcyclist's life.

Philip Ratcliffe from Abbot's Way in Highfield has been awarded a Royal Humane Society Resuscitation Certificate for reviving Ian Rummey after an accident on Bassett Avenue.

Mr Ratcliffe, 49, was driving to work at Wordsworth House dental practice in Palmerston Street, Romsey, when he came across the accident.

Mr Rummey was lying unconscious on the ground with his helmet jammed against the kerb and the strap tight across his throat. He had swallowed his tongue and was not breathing.

Mr Ratcliffe, who has been a dentist for 27 years, moved him with the help of another man and then managed to get his fingers into the rider's mouth to free his tongue and clear his airway.

An ambulance crew then arrived and fitted a neckbrace to take the patient to hospital.

Mr Ratcliffe has a wife, Rosamund, and children Emily, 12, and Christopher, 11.

He said: "When the policeman came to take a statement from me afterwards he said should he give the motorcyclist my name and address so that he could come and thank me and I said no, it was just important that he was alive.

"I felt a sense of achievement because I was just driving to work when it happened in front of me. He had multiple facial injuries, he had stopped breathing and he was blue, so he would have died."

Major-General Christopher Tyler, secretary of the Royal Humane Society, praised Mr Ratcliffe's actions on January 17.

He said: "As a dentist, Mr Ratcliffe is no doubt used to staring into people's mouths all day, but rarely can doing so have proved as vital as it did on this occasion.

"Without his expertise, this motorcyclist would surely not have survived. He thoroughly deserves this award."

Mr Ratcliffe will receive his award, which was made on the recommendation of the Chief Constable of Hampshire, from the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire at a special service to be held in Winchester on July 24.