A heart attack victim has praised a message in a bottle scheme which gives vital medical details to emergency services.

The scheme, launched by Lions clubs in Oxfordshire, provides a small plastic bottle, filled with medical information, which can be stored in the fridge of an elderly or vulnerable person.

Each bottle contains the person's name, medication, allergies, next of kin -- and even whether any pets need to be cared for.

Emergency staff are alerted to the bottle by a green sticker on the fridge door.

Reg Croxon, 74, was one of the first people to benefit from the scheme when he collapsed at his home in Stanley Road, Oxford, with a heart attack last month. He said: "I didn't know much about what was going on. When the ambulance came to collect me I passed out.

"When I came to I was in bed at the John Radcliffe and my brother was there.

"The ambulance crew had got his details out of the bottle, called him, and he drove up from Portsmouth.

"It's reassuring to know the bottle is there for the future."

The Lions have distributed 15,000 bottles to doctors' surgeries, organisations for the elderly, district nurses and chemists.

A £1,000 grant from the Oxford Swindon & Gloucester Co-op will pay for a further 4,000 bottles.

John Radburn, treasurer of the scheme, said: "We aim to give bottles to 10 per cent of the population of Oxfordshire, about 70,000 people, because we know it will save lives."