A GRATEFUL mother has thanked her two young sons after they went to the aid of their father who was badly injured in a fall.

James Hore

A GRATEFUL mother has thanked her two young sons after they went to the aid of their father who was badly injured in a fall.

James and Kieran Davies had just gone to bed when they heard a loud bang.

The youngsters, aged five and eight, immediately rushed out of their bedroom and discovered that their dad, Mark, had fallen down stairs, suffering a broken arm.

They immediately dialled 999, telling the operator that they needed an ambulance to come to their Chelmsford home.

The call was put though to clinical assessor Debbie Thomas at the health and emergency operations centre in Chelmsford.

She said: “We receive calls from children from time to time.

“The boys did extremely well as they answered all of my questions which enabled me to dispatch an ambulance to the right address.

“The boys even managed to unlock a padlocked door at the rear of the house allowing the ambulance crew to attend their dad who had fallen close to the front door.”

The keen footballers were praised by their mum, Claire, who said: “I never realised that they knew how to dial 999.

“I am extremely proud of them.”

And Glenn Young, manager at the operations centre, said: “We're very pleased to hear that the boys used the service so responsibly and that they were able to help their dad at what must have been a distressing time.

“It goes to show how important it is for children to be shown how to use 999 correctly - not only does it mean they can help a loved one, but they will also hopefully have respect for the service and not use it irresponsibly.”

The East of England Ambulance Service awarded the boys a special certificate of recognition after they sprung into action at the end of January and they were presented with their awards this week.

Kieran and James told staff: “Thank you very much - we can't wait to show our friends at school.”