A 10-YEAR-OLD boy has been nominated for an award after he saved his mum’s life when she choked on a pork scratching.

Dom Hollinshead, from Billingham, near Stockton, raced to help his mother Lisa after she chocked on the popular snack last year.

Lisa was relaxing watching television one evening when she started to choke on a pork scratching.

Although normally in bed by 10pm, Dom had gone downstairs and happened to notice his mum struggling to breathe.

Thanks to his first aid training at school, he knew exactly what to do and performed abdominal thrusts on his mother to dislodge the piece of pork scratching.

Dom has now been named as a finalist in the Guy Evans Young Hero of the Year Award category for the St John Ambulance Everyday Heroes awards.

The award is given to an extraordinary young person, under the age of 18, who has saved a life with first aid or has made an extraordinary first aid achievement.

The award is given in honour of Guy Evans, who died when first aid might have given him a chance to live.

Lisa said: “Dom’s my hero - we would both normally have been in bed at that time but, for some reason he’d left his bedroom and ran in to help.

“He gave me four massive abdominal thrusts and suddenly I could breathe again.

“We both started crying. I was laughing, crying and hugging him. He really did save my life.’ Dom said; ‘We’d been taught first aid at school by St John Ambulance and I’m so glad I knew what to do.

“I did abdominal thrusts and eventually it worked and mum could breathe again.’ Lisa added: “It just shows what an amazing job St John Ambulance does - I think all schools should teach first aid.

“Simple first aid skills really can be the difference between life lost and a life saved.”

Simon Dunn, regional director at St John Ambulance said: "Everyday Heroes is the very essence of what St John Ambulance is about – ordinary people doing extraordinary things through first aid.

"We believe that no one should suffer for a lack of first aid, and the actions of our finalists prove that first aid really can be the difference between life and death."