DOTING mum Laura Cubbon thought she was giving her nine-year-old son William a treat when she offered him a mint on a shopping trip.

But the next thing she knew, William was turning grey and fighting for breath as he started to choke on the sweet.

Ironically, Laura, of Oakland Street, Padgate, had enrolled on a first aid course at work years earlier to specifically learn how to save a child from choking.

But when it came to putting into practice everything she had learned, all she could do was stand frozen to the spot screaming for help.

Thankfully, three shoppers, alerted by Laura's cries, came to his aid.

One performed the Heimlich Manoeuvre on William while another tried to calm him down. The third, a nurse, administered first aid.

Eventually, the sweet was dislodged so that William could breathe again much to his mother's relief.

She drove him to Warrington Hospital where doctors examined him and gave him the all-clear.

Laura says: "I've always had a thing about choking and when I had William I was frightened he would choke. So when I did the first aid course, even though it wasn't part of the training, I asked the leader to teach me.

"Of course, when it came down to using it on my own child I was useless. If it'd been someone else's child I would have leaped into action, but with my own I just stood there frozen in shock. I tried hitting him on his back but that just seemed to upset him even more.

"The last thing I said to him when I gave him the sweet was to be careful, the next thing he was slapping my arm to get my attention.

"I turned around and he was fighting to breathe and had turned a funny colour. And all I could do was panic and start screaming. I can't thank those three ladies enough."