A PARAMEDIC is set to travel the world to study how other countries deal with emergency situations.

Matt Dugdale, from Clitheroe, will spend more than seven weeks in Canada, New Zealand and Australia to look into their Community First Responder schemes.

Mr Dugdale, who co-ordinated a project to install dozens of defibrillators across the Ribble Valley, was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travelling fellowship.

The 24-year-old said he could not wait to experience a different way of dealing with emergencies.

He said: “The countries I’m going to spend time in do not have a national health service but something very similar.

“I hope to gain valuable experience during my time away and learn about how to approach different situations.

“I would like to bring back that knowledge and implement it into my practice and to help improve the health care here in the North West.”

Before becoming a paramedic, Mr Dugdale trained as a community first responder.

He would react to emergency calls and provide life-saving first aid in the vital minutes before an ambulance arrives.

Mr Dugdale is only the second paramedic in the country to be granted a travelling fellowship by the trust.

They are awarded to people to pursue new ways of tackling a wide-range of social, medical and scientific issues.

Mr Dugdale, who works in Warrington, said: “I cannot wait to go now, it’s going to be amazing and I will get to see so much of the world.

“It’s an experience I will not forget.”

Julia Weston, chief executive of the memorial trust, said: “Churchill Fellows are motivated and talented individuals.

“They travel the world and return with innovative ideas."