AN Ivybridge Community College student and St John Ambulance cadet has won praise for helping a woman who fell and broke her hip.

Anna Linzell, 14 was leaving the surgery in Modbury when, hearing a cry, she saw that a woman had tripped over her dog.

Luckily Anna, who has attended St John Ambulance’s Kingsbridge Cadets for the last year, sprang into action and went to the woman’s aid.

Anna said: ’She was screaming in pain and I just wanted to make sure she was ok, so I ran over to her. 

‘I immediately got down on the floor, spoke gently to her and told her not to move, then asked my sister to look after her dog, while I got a coat from the car to use as a pillow for her head.

‘It was late afternoon on a cold February day, so I knew I had to keep her warm. I got a passerby to get a doctor from the surgery, and other people got blankets while me and my mum made her as comfortable as possible.

‘I carried on talking to her to calm her down and encourage her to stay still, in case she’d broken any bones.

‘We stayed until the ambulance came and took her to hospital and, a while later, we found out that she’d broken her hip.’

Anna, who would like to be a doctor when she is older, believes everybody should learn first aid. She said: ’It’s a very useful set of skills that everyone should know. You never know when someone might get sick or injured and be relying on you to help them.’

Anna’s mum Jennie is extremely proud of the way her daughter stepped in to help. She said: ’I was very impressed – it was like watching a completely different person. 

‘Anna went into auto-pilot and got on with caring for her patient without a second thought. She was fantastic.’