Madeleine the heroine

Sharon Pennington with children Madeleine and Dean

A QUICK-thinking girl came to the rescue when her mum collapsed from a stroke.

Twelve-year-old Madeleine Pennington stayed calm on the phone to the emergency services while consoling her eight-year-old brother Dean as mum Sharon lay helpless on the floor.

Sharon (44) and Madeleine woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen at around 9am to feed their cat Hector at their home in Birchwood, Chadderton.

Sharon said: “I couldn’t focus on what I was doing. Then my leg gave way and I fell on the floor. I managed to pull myself up and I was leaning against the wall. I knew my face had drooped. I was trying to tell Madeleine to get mummy to hospital so she rang 999.

The North Chadderton School student said: “Dean was crying, he was telling me to ring nan. Then I dialled 999. They told me to stay in the room. They knew she had suffered a stroke. I had to keep calm for my mum because she would have been upset if I was upset.

“They were keeping me calm, saying ‘you’re doing really well. Keep calm, the ambulance is on the way’.

I didn’t know what was happening. I’ve never seen anything like that, it’s scary.”

Sharon suffered another stroke in the ambulance and twice again at Fairfield General Hospital. Her speech is still slurred and the right side of her body has been affected. It is believed she might have a hole in the heart, which could have been a contributing factor.

Valerie praised her quick-thinking granddaughter: “She’s quite a little heroine. I’m so proud of her.”

Her face is almost back to normal, and thanks to physiotherapy she has already made progress with speech and mobility.

“It was awful,” Sharon went on to say. “It was something that was out of my control. I knew what was happening but couldn’t do anything about it.”