After 68-year-old Glenice Jones went into anaphylactic shock at Penybontfawr, an ambulance took an hour to reach the isolated farmhouse having travelled from Newtown - 31 miles away.

Mrs Jones was stung by a wasp as she arrived for a children's party at her daughter's home at Cileos on May 31. Her face began to swell and her enlarged tongue threatened to block her airway and she was fighting for breath.

After advice from Shropdoc to get an ambulance, Powys Ambulance controllers could not say how soon one could arrive, so Mrs Owen called a neighbour, a retired nurse for help.

Luckily her neighbour knew of a Llanrhaeadr resident who kept an EpiPen which could inject the life-saving adrenaline, and, fortunately, she was at home.

After a frantic journey to obtain the EpiPen, the farmer's wife and retired nurse administered the life-saving medication and then had to give Mrs Jones her heart medication as she suffered chest pains as a result of the adrenaline.
Anxious wait

"It was something we had never done before, but we worked it out between us," Mrs Owen explained.

The pair also used ice to try and reduce the swollen tongue as they waited anxiously for the ambulance, which eventually took her to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital after an hour's anxious wait.

An A&E doctor at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital told Mrs Jones that without the prompt action of her daughter she would have died from the severe allergic reaction.

You can read more in the Advertizer this week, but we want to hear your ambulance and emergency services experiences. Have you ever had to wait for a long time for help to arrive?