A QUICK-thinking seven-year-old has been honoured for her life-saving actions after her mother collapsed unconscious.

Although she had never previously seen her mother Sue have an epileptic fit, Eilish Way remembered being told about them.

So, when 43-year-old diabetic Sue collapsed on the floor, the youngster's quick response was to call an ambulance.

Between her sobs, she explained the situation to concerned ambulance staff.

She even managed to roll her mother into the recovery position.

Now the schoolgirl, of Beverley Road, Redcar, east Cleveland, has been recognised with an ambulance service award.

Emma Murphy, the control room assistant who answered her call, said she may well have saved her mother's life.

"Eilish's mum could have easily died," she said. "If anyone saved her, it was Eilish."

Mrs Way, whose son Callum, is also credited with saving her life by alerting her husband to a fit when he was just three months old, said she couldn't believe it when she heard what Eilish had done.

"Although I had told her what to do, I never expected her to remember it," she said.

"I burst into tears when they told me how she had acted."

Mrs Murphy said that when she first heard of the situation, she thought it was a hoax.

"It was during the school holidays and I thought it was a hoax call because we had been inundated with them," she said. "I realised it wasn't when I heard Eilish crying a lot and sounding frightened."

"She said; "my mummy's blacked out", and we knew what was wrong straight away."

Mrs Way, who emerged from her ordeal with only a bitten tongue, said she couldn't be prouder of her daughter.