WHEN her five-months pregnant mum collapsed, seven-year-old Paige Barnes didn't panic. She saved the day by calling 999.

Mum Jennie Blanchard fainted and hit her head on the floor after days of feeling sick and experiencing shooting pains in her stomach.

Daughter Paige heard the bang and ran to her mum before dialling 999 for an ambulance.

"I had to say where I was and I said that my mum was feeling sick and she just fainted and hit her head on the floor," said Paige.

"I said that she was pregnant and mummy wasn't moving and her eyes were a bit closed," she said.

Paige, a pupil of St Oswald's Primary School, Padgate, went to get a next door neighbour who waited outside for the ambulance while Paige sat with her mum, putting a cool towel on her forehead and keeping her calm.

"What was so good about Paige was the way she stayed so calm despite her dad dying 18 months ago," said Jennie's boyfriend Martyn Ellis.

"For her to be calm, thinking it might happen again (a parent dying), well, she's done really well," he said.

Jennie had to have a major operation to save her life and that of her baby.

Doctors suspected a twisted organ and had to delicately operate on Jennie's stomach, taking care not to distress the baby, which could not have survived at that stage had an emergency delivery been necessary.

But doctors could find nothing wrong with Jennie and could only assume they corrected any problems during the operation, said Martyn.

"One of the consultants said he had never seen anything like it," said Jennie.

Paige's quick thinking saved her mum and her unborn brother, doctors said.

Jennie, aged 27, is due to give birth to a son on June 18.

The family, who live on Carrington Park, off Battersby Lane, are now recovering and looking forward to the birth.

"I think we'll have to let Paige have a say in choosing a name, even though she wanted a girl," said Jennie.