Doing it FOR MUM

Meet three daughters who have transformed their mothers' lives

'I started doing the CPR I'd been taught'

Anna Cross, 26, a veterinary physiotherapist from Wembury, Devon, lives with her mum Jane, 58.

My mum and I have always been extremely close. We're not just mother and daughter, but the very best of friends too. So, when Mum persuaded me to give myself an easier start to my working day, I did. As a mental-health practitioner, she knew the terrible impact that work-related stress can have on people.

So, on 27 November 2023, I was luckily still at home when Mum called me to her bedroom, saying she felt unwell. She was flushed and distressed, and asked me to take her blood pressure and send the reading to a friend, who's a doctor. Then, to my horror, she collapsed unconscious, fitting uncontrollably.

By chance, I'd just completed a first-aid course, as part of a sailing qualification that I was working towards. I called 999, got Mum onto the floor, and started doing the life-saving CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) I'd been taught, with the call handler counting me through it over the phone.

I'd been performing chest compressions for 25 minutes when the ambulance arrived to defibrillate Mum, followed by the Devon Air Ambulance, with an on-board anaesthetist who sedated her. Both crews kept telling me I'd saved her life. But I knew fate had played a huge part too. It had been pure chance that I'd been there that morning.

In hospital, we discovered Mum had suffered an extremely rare event - a cardiac arrest and two different types of heart attack at the same time. Ironically, stress was the most likely trigger.