A cash lifeline may be thrown to an emergency medical service that has helped save hundreds of lives in the Helston and Lizard area.

The co-responder scheme, which sees specially trained firefighters called to medical emergencies to administer first aid until an ambulance arrives, has been under threat due to a lack of funding.

But months of behind-the-scenes negotiations may be about to bear fruit, saving the service for at least another year.

County councillor Carolyn Rule, from Mullion, who has been part of a committee working to try to find funding for the scheme, said failure was not an option.

"We have to save it," she said. "People out here are frightened and for their peace of mind we have to find a way to keep it going. I am definitely hopeful that it will continue, but if the solution we are looking at at the moment doesn't work out then we will have to find the money from somewhere else."

The future of the co-responders was discussed at a packed public meeting at Mawgan village hall on Friday.

Among the speakers was Cornwall's chief fire officer, Matt Littmoden, who said the fire service could no longer afford to fund a scheme it was not obliged to provide. "It is an excellent service but our backs are up against the wall," he said. "We are starting to cut away fire cover, yet we are keeping a service going that we have no statutory duty to provide."

Mr Littmoden added that all requests to the ambulance service to cover the running costs of the scheme had been "stone walled".

Several members of the public present bore witness to the "marvellous" service provided by the co-responders, who are based at Helston, Mullion and St Keverne fire stations.

One woman, whose husband died recently, said the Mullion-based team had given the couple three more weeks together.

She said: "The fire brigade got to us in six minutes. The ambulance took 30 minutes.

"Without them the co-responders my husband would not have survived. "If they get rid of them, there's no hope for anybody."

Local councillor Phil Martin said the Helston crew had saved his brother's life.

"Let's fight together to get some funding to keep this going," he concluded, to resounding applause.

Around £30,000 a year is needed to sustain the co-responder service, and the relatively small sum involved drew scathing comment from some of those attending the meeting.

Helston mayor Ronnie Williams said it was "absolute peanuts", while local MP Andrew George said it was a "tiny" amount of money in terms of the sums spent on health services, but an amount that had a "massive" impact on people living on The Lizard.

Local councillor Mike Clayton referred to the £160,000 the county council announced last year it was going to spend on bottled water.

"Drinking from the tap would fund five years of this scheme," he said. "It's a matter of priorities. We are elected to respond to what people want and this the co-responder scheme is what they want."

The meeting heard the committee trying to save the scheme had been working with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust to find the necessary funding.

Mrs Rule said the outcome of those negotiations would be known by the end of February.