TWO heroic prison officers have won awards after they saved the life of a security guard.

Tracey Green, 50, and Jo King, 46, both from Benfleet, were presented with Global Pulse Awards after rushing to the aid of the guard at Southend Magistrates Court.

As they transported defendants to the court in Victoria Avenue, they had no idea how dramatic their day would become.

The pair were on duty as part of Serco’s Prisoner Escorting Court Service when they received a phone call from a member of the court security team asking if they knew first aid.

A security guard had been taken critically ill and needed immediate help.

The pair didn’t think twice before running to help the casualty.

They found 53-year-old Alfie Hewitt collapsed on the floor. They put him into the recovery position – but soon realised that he was not breathing.

By now an ambulance had been called. While answering questions from the 999 operator on the other end of the phone, both of the guards gave Mr Hewitt CPR for 20 minutes until his pulse finally returned and the paramedics arrived.

Mr Hewitt was airlifted to hospital where he remained on life support for three days.

Before leaving, the ambulance crew told the Serco guards that had it not been for them there would have been a very different outcome to the drama on July 19 last year.

Happily, a week later the security guard was able to visit Southend Magistrates Court to thank the pair in person for saving his life.

Claire Keaney, Serco’s operations manager, said: “We are all really proud of Tracey and Jo. They went above and beyond, rushing to the aid of the security guard and saving his life by applying CPR to get him breathing again.

“This would be a daunting task even for someone who had done this before, but Tracey and Jo kept their heads and used the training they had been given during first aid.

“Their actions showed immense bravery and courage in exceptional circumstances.”

The guards were presented with their awards by Serco chief executive Rupert Soames and chairman Sir Roy Gardner at an event in Birmingham marking the company’s UK winners of its Global Pulse Awards.

The awards celebrate employees from among Serco’s 50,000 strong team around the world who have gone above and beyond and done extraordinary things for their colleagues, customers or communities.

Serco specialises in the delivery of essential public services in defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and other citizen services in the UK and Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East