A pensioner collapsed and was taken to hospital during the Pennington Flash Parkrun.

The medical emergency occurred at 9.32am during the weekly run on Saturday morning.

The event was immediately aborted and the actions of fellow runners and the emergency services are now being praised for administering CPR and using the defibrillator.

Pennington Flash Parkrun posted a statement on its Facebook Page, which said: "David had collapsed on our course where he was quickly attended to by fellow Parkrunners and volunteers who administered CPR and our event defib.

"Emergency services were called and were quickly in attendance including the air ambulance.

"David regained consciousness before being taken by ambulance to hospital."

It added:"His family pass on their sincere thanks to all those that helped to provide such quick care and support.

"We at Pennington Flash Parkrun would like to thank all parkrunners, volunteers, emergency services and park staff that helped out today, and to all runners for their understanding for our aborted Parkrun.

A further update in a post stated: "We can report that David is ok and recovering in hospital.  Without the quick actions of fellow Parkrunners and volunteers and the use of our event defib the outcome may have been so much worse.

"The hospital staff credit the quick use of our defib with the CPR given by volunteers and fellow Parkrunners as key to saving David’s life.

"Please join us in wishing David a full and speedy recovery.

"We are now organising replacing our defib pads and battery ready for Saturday.

"It is due to the kind donations from our Parkrun community that we are able to fund replacement pads and batteries for our defib, be it due to use or as they pass their use by date.

"If you would like to help us fund the purchase of replacement defib battery and pads and other first aid kit essentials you can make donations via the ‘donate to this event’ button in the middle of the page at:

"https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penningtonflash/aboutus/"

Pennington Flash Parkrun is a free 5K community event held every Saturday at 9am at Pennington Flash Country Park in Leigh.

A spokesman for Bolton Mountain Rescue Team said: “At 09:32 on Saturday 6th July we were requested to attend Pennington Flash in Leigh by North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, where a 75 year old male was reported to have gone into cardiac arrest during the regular Pennington Flash Parkrun event.

"Team members and two team vehicles attended to assist the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, North West Air Ambulance Charity crews and Parkrun volunteers with a very quick carry to an NWAS ambulance.

"Happily this serious event had a fantastic outcome; the man in question survived and is now recovering at hospital. Undoubtedly early CPR coupled with early defibrillation given by Parkrun participants, volunteers and members of the public helped, together with good training, emergency planning and coordination..

"Our best wishes and hopes for a full and speedy recovery go to the gentleman who fell ill.

"If you wouldn't know what to do in this situation, and want to learn how to give life-saving CPR, check out the British Heart Foundation website - https://revivr.bhf.org.uk/"