AN 11-YEAR-OLD girl has been hailed as a life-saver after coming to her sister’s aid when she was choking on a sweet.

Brodie Tayler had been in a lunchtime first aid club at school and put her skills into practice when six-year-old Betsie was struggling to breathe.

The girls were in the back of the family car heading to their home in Moordown when Betsie began struggling to breathe.

Brodie said: “She was eating one of those small travel sweets and she was singing her favourite song and all of a sudden she just started coughing and in between each cough she would take a deep breath.

“I was getting a bit panicked so I started hitting her on the back. I didn’t have much room in the back of the car. Then she managed to get this sweet out of her breathing tubes and then she swallowed it and luckily she’s still alive.”

Mum Vanessa said: “We’re very strict on boiled sweets and lollipops but they had a tin of sweets given to them by their gran and they had them in the back.”

She said Betsie was suddenly struggling to breathe and dad Rich stopped the car as soon as possible.

“By the time we found a safe place to stop and I managed to get in the back, Brodie had bent forward over her and given her three slaps on the back,” she said.

She said Brodie’s actions may well have saved her sister’s life. “It was probably only seconds but it feels like a long time,” she said.

Brodie learned first aid in a lunchtime club at Moordown St John’s CE Primary School, where teaching assistant Nina Laing runs the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart training course.

“When I heard what Brodie had done, I was really proud of her,” Mrs Laing.

“She was one of the most conscientious pupils. She was always there answering the questions and saying the right things.”

She said it was the third time she had heard of a pupil on the course putting their skills into use in an emergency.

“I give up my lunch hour, they give up their lunch hour, and it’s worthwhile,” she said.

Head teacher Peter Herbert said all the school’s year five pupils passed through the first aid club.

“Brodie is now in year six so she didn’t just practice it this year, yet she knew what to do,” he said.