A mum who went into cardiac arrest has her hero teenager daughter to thank for saving her life.
Melissa, then 14, performed CPR on her mum Clare Doyle, 43, after her SNORING woke her up - and alerted her that something was wrong.
The teen had picked up the vital skill from a first aid session at school - and happened to be in the right place after falling asleep in her mum's bed.
The mum has since become a community responder, using CPR to support emergency services.
Clare, of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, said: "If Melissa hadn’t known what to do the morning I went into cardiac arrest, I would have died.
“I had worked late the night before and we were supposed to be flying to Liverpool the next day, so she was just in my room chatting away and ended up going to sleep in my bed.
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“It was such a fluke but it ended up being lifesaving because if she hadn’t spotted what was happening when she did, I probably wouldn't be here now."
Melissa, now, 19, was awoken by her mum's odd snoring - and immediately noticed something was wrong as she saw her mum's face was grey.
Clare said: “I was making a snoring-type noise, although I have no memory of it and it woke Melissa up. She looked at me and realised that I didn’t look right. I had gone grey and was unresponsive.
“She rang 999 and they guided her on what to do as the nearest ambulance was about 40 minutes away.
"I was deteriorating quickly and, by coincidence, Melissa had recently been taught CPR at school, so she did that while on the phone to 999."
With Clare's heart beating in unstable and irregular patterns, Melissa's intervention was essential.
She said: “Melissa’s CPR maintained oxygen flowing to my brain and prevented me from suffering brain damage or worse, death, while we waited for help.”
When paramedics arrived, Clare was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where she was admitted to ICU.
The family faced more trauma, as Clare failed to wake-up for three days, with doctors warning them that her chances of survival were looking slim.
Then, on Monday morning, she defied the odds by springing back to consciousness.
She said: “I woke up and I felt like I’d had a really good sleep all weekend and felt really refreshed.
“I had no idea what had happened, so I was shocked to find myself in a hospital bed.
"The first thing I said was, ‘Where’s my make-up bag and who’s minding the dog?’
"Everybody was like, ‘Hold on a second, we were preparing for your funeral, and you sit up talking like nothing has happened!’”
Clare spent two weeks in hospital where she had scans in a bid to determine the cause of her cardiac arrest.
She said: “I have gone through a lot of tests and MRI scans, but my cardiologist hasn’t determined what caused the cardiac arrest. It was just one of those things.”
And, despite the traumatic event, she does not dwell on the prospect of it happening again.
She said: “I don't really worry about it. I’m quite a positive person.
"I’ve just kind of carried on and the fact that I now have a little defibrillator which was fitted into my chest helps, because I know if this did happen again that it would shock my heart.
"It also regulates my heart rhythm so it’s like a back up that I have.”
Now, Clare is looking to the future and has taken her daughter's lead by learning CPR and volunteering as a lifesaver in the community.
She said: “I’m so grateful that I’m still here to spend time with my girls.
“I consider myself incredibly lucky I got a second chance at life, and it’s all thanks to Melissa, and the others who helped me.”
Clare is now supporting the Resuscitation Council UK’s Restart a Heart campaign, which teaches adults and children CPR and defibrillator awareness throughout the year, culminating in a worldwide training day led by ambulance services across the UK on October 16.
She said: “Only around one in three people know how to perform CPR, which is a shocking statistic, so I would urge everyone to learn, because you just never know when you might need it."
