Ten-year-old girl saves neighbour
PENSIONER Harry Cawood today told the 10-year-old girl who saved his life: "You are my guardian angel."
Jennifer Lamb was hailed a life-saver after she alerted her parents to the cries of her elderly next-door neighbour.
Jennifer was woken in the early hours of the morning when she heard 79-year-old Harry shouting for help at his home in Bunyan Avenue, Biddick Hall.
The quick-thinking youngster ran into her parent's bedroom to raise the alarm.
And when Diane and Darren Lamb gained entry to Harry's home, they found him lying on the sitting room floor after he had suffered an epileptic-type seizure.
The pensioner was taken to South Tyneside District Hospital but is now back home and fighting fit thanks to Jennifer.
Today, Mr Cawood told how he had crawled downstairs to press a telephone alarm connected with a central control at South Shields Town Hall but no one answered.
He said: "I pressed the button and kept asking for someone to send an ambulance but there was no one on the other end of the line. That's when I started shouting for help and Jennifer heard me."
Mrs Lamb, 36, said: "Jennifer came into our room and said 'someone is shouting mummy'. She had heard Harry shouting 'help me, help me.'
"We went to Harry's daughter's home a short distance away but she was away. Luckily, our neighbour Tony had a back door key and when we got in Harry was lying on the floor.
"It seems that he had fallen and banged his head and become unconscious.
"When he woke up he started shouting for help, and that's when Jennifer heard him.
"He was in a pretty bad way but if he had been left all night he could have got hypothermia. We're very proud of Jennifer for her quick thinking."
Harry's daughter Kathleen said: "If it hadn't have been for this little girl, heaven knows what could have happened. We are eternally grateful."
"My dad had managed to clamber down the stairs and press the alarm on his telephone. An operator is supposed to answer and ask what service he wants.
"When he pressed it, it was flashing but no one answered. I intend to raise a complaint about this, my father was left high and dry."