A hero who helped save the life of of a man who had been shot six times, carried on working his private patrol for five more hours after the incident to make sure the people of Woodford Green were protected.

The My Local Bobby (MLB) patroller, who is privately paid for by Monkhams residents to protect streets in the vicinity, heard gunfire on Thursday, July 11, at 11.10pm and went to investigate.

The 31-year-old, who is a former Coldstream Guard and veteran of three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, found a mother on her doorstep in Malvern Drive shouting that her husband - later identified as cage fighter Paul Allen - had been hurt.

Grabbing his first aid bag and not waiting for firearms police to arrive he bravely entered the property to see what he could do to help.

"Paul was half on stairs, half on the floor and another lady (who I presumed was a friend of the family) was already there with him," he said.

"I have been on operational tours with the military -I had been in heavy situations before - and from what I could tell he had two shots to the chest and one in the neck.

"I started applying pressure to the wounds and tried to reassure the victim that he was going to be OK - he started to go into shock and slip in and out of consciousness.

"The hard part was that his wife was holding a young child in her arms and there was another at her side - I told them to go upstairs and that their dad was going to be OK."

He said he joined the military at the "tender age of 16" and he had "muscle memory" when dealing with such situations.

He humbly played down his life-saving role and said the other woman did just as much and got towels to press on the wounds.

"I am no different to anyone else - I hope anyone would do the same thing," he added.

"I am human, it did bring back some memories, but once I gave a statement to the police and debriefed with my boss I carried on with the rest of my shift for another five hours.

"I wanted to make sure the community was still protected and as far as I'm concerned I am paid to do a job, I'm going to do it.

"I reassured some of the other residents and carried on."

MLB director David Mckelvey said this was not the first time his employee had made a massive impact to the community and just three weeks ago he caught a prolific burglar.

He said that since MLD has been working in Woodford Green its patrols have made a drastic impact and "burglaries have dropped through the floor".

"His actions in rushing to what was clearly a firearms incident and then rendering immediate first aid that may have saved the victims life shows outstanding commitment, dedication and heroism," he said.

"All at MLB wish the very best for the victim and hope he makes a full recovery.".