FEAR gripped Gillian Cocker when her 82-year-old mother started to struggle for breath during a family evening at home.

Panic overwhelmed her and it was all she could do to reach for the phone to dial 999.

Luckily the voice on the other end of the phone was Jackie Smith's.

Jackie, one of 30 control room staff at Lancashire ambulance headquarters, has just completed a course in helping distraught callers cope in the crucial minutes before the ambulance arrives.

"I just went to pieces," said Gillian, who lives on Woodhead Road, Read. "I thought my mother was having a stroke and I had no idea what to do.

"Jackie was wonderful, really helpful. She kept the line open and calmed me down and then told me to lie my mother on the floor.

"The ambulance arrived in six minutes, but I don't know how I would have coped without Jackie."

Gillian's mother, Cora Utley, spent two weeks in Burnley General Hospital and is now recovering at home.

This is the first time the pre-arrival advice system, first introduced in the USA, has been used in the North West. Callers can now be guided through life-saving resuscitation methods by trained phone operators.

The chief executive of Lancashire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, David Hill, said: "We believe this will be reassuring and calming to callers in what can be very distressing circumstances and will save lives in emergency situations."

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