Friday was Restart a Heart Day, with people across Australia and New Zealand coming forward to talk about how important knowing CPR is to save the life of a loved one undergoing cardiac arrest.

Manildra man Steve Dickie had his life saved during a cardiac arrest last year by his partner administering CPR and volunteer ambulance officers restarting his heart before paramedics from Molong and Orange were able to attend the scene.

Molong duty operations manager Kat Golledge said having trained paramedics - volunteer or otherwise - on scene within minutes "changes the story completely".

"It depends really on where they are. When it's cardiac involved, the minute you don't have that oxygen going around your body it increases your risk of death," she said.

She said about 380 volunteer ambulance officers were active across the state, with about 50 in the Central West from Sofala to Eugowra.

"We're always open to having more people come down," she said.

She said training sessions were held fairly frequently and co be it in situations of cardiac arrest or other emergencies.

NSW Ambulance commissioner Dominic Morgan said especially for cardiac arrests, "every second counts".

"The stats are shocking - for every minute a patient is in cardiac arrest and does not receive CPR or a shock from a defibrillator, their chance of survival drops by up to 10 per cent.

"Right around the developed world it takes around eight to ten minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

"Tragically, only one in 10 survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest to walk out of hospital."

Regional areas are more at-risk due to distances between locations, with the quick timing of volunteer ambulance officers David Press and Simone Sutherland and the work of Mr Dickie's partner Guinevere Missingham saving his life last year.

Dr Morgan said partnerships were crucial.

"If an Ambulance is 10 minutes away there's a very poor chance of a person surviving a cardiac arrest and that's why we must partner with the community and other emergency services," he said.