Firemen cut Harleigh free from toilet seat

Jamie Leigh Archer was proud when two-year-old Harleigh Archer, who is toilet training, dutifully went upstairs in the family home in Horden, Peterlee, at 11.30am on Wednesday.

But minutes later the toddler came down with the padded toilet seat around her neck.

Jamie, 30, said: “I actually don’t know why she had put it there.

“She has just come down the stairs with it on.

“I thought ‘if it has gone on, it will come off’.

“But she has put it on where it is curved in and smooth, so it has slid over her head but then trying to get it off meant there were sharp edges and it was digging in her ears.

“It wasn’t budging.”

Harleigh, who has two older sisters, Devinn, 11, and Jorgie, seven, was not phased at not being able to remove her unusual fashion accessory.

Her dad, David, 37, was out, so Jamie got her mum around, they called 111 for advice and then contacted the fire service based at Peterlee.

A firefighter upgraded to call to an emergency and within minutes a crew was in the front room working out what to do.

She said: “They came with their blue lights on and everything.

“She was fine all of the way through it.

“That is why I found it so funny because she wasn’t hurt.

“The most distressing thing was she did not want to take it off. She did get a bit frightened when they first came in, but then they started talking to her and playing with the teddy with her.

“They were trying to get it off and thought it might just slip off, then they were like ‘just get the bolt cutters’.

“She had it on for a good hour.”

Now Jamie has thanked the crew from County Durham Fire and Rescue Service for the way they handled the situation.

She said: “I cannot thank them enough.

“The man who came in first was the one I spoke to on the phone and he rang it through as an emergency. They were fantastic.

“We laughed all day about it but I do want to show other young mams and guardians how easily these things like this can happen.”