A SEVEN-year-old girl saved her grandmother's life when she kept a cool head and knew exactly what to do in a medical emergency.

When she awoke shortly after midnight to find her grandmother in a diabetic coma, Stevie Samways didn't panic. Instead, she phoned her aunt, waited patiently on the telephone as help was summoned, and then opened the door to rescuers.

Paramedics say that, without the youngster's intervention, 77-year-old Sylvia Samways would not have survived the attack.

Stevie was given the pick of the toy shop after relatives collected more than £300 for their little heroine.

"I had come in from playing bingo at Colburn and later that night, I went into a diabetic coma," said Mrs Samways, of Richmond, North Yorkshire.

"It was about half-past midnight. I was making funny noises and shouting for my mum, who has been dead for years.

"Stevie was staying overnight. I don't know how she woke up, because she usually sleeps heavily, but she phoned my daughter at Colburn and told her that Nan was making funny noises and that she couldn't wake me.

"Then she stayed on the phone while my daughter phoned another daughter, Jill Ramsey, at Skeeby. Stevie then unlocked the door to let her in."

Mrs Ramsey, who called an ambulance, said: "The paramedics said that Stevie had done a wonderful job.

"Mum was in a bad way and I found it distressing, so it must have been frightening for a seven-year-old."

Stevie, whose mother, Jackie, owns the Georgian hair salon at Catterick Garrison, was modest about her heroics.

"Nan was making funny noises and she wouldn't wake up, so I phoned my auntie," she said, adding that, if no one had answered the phone, she would have run to another relative's house nearby.

Stevie, a pupil at St Mary's RC Primary School, in Richmond, was rewarded with a trip to Toys R Us with her father, Steven, where she chose a toy dog.

Libby Dowling, of Diabetes UK, said: "Diabetes UK would like to congratulate Stevie for spotting the warning signs and helping her grandmother."