A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl has been presented with a commendation after helping save her mum’s life when she had a severe asthma attack behind the wheel of her car.

Katherine Holifield and daughter Isla, seven, had just finished a canoeing trip in Monmouth and were on their way home to Cardiff when the incident happened on the A449 near Raglan Services.

Thankfully Isla helped guide paramedics to the car beside the busy A449 dual carriageway, and her mother received treatment in time.

The duo attended the Welsh Ambulance Service’s HQ two weeks later to say thank you, and Isla was presented with a certificate for her coolness on the 999 call.

Katherine - who has brittle asthma - revealed that she began struggling to breathe at the wheel of her Toyota Yaris and pulled into a lay-by.

She was physically unable to speak through heavy wheezing, but the 999 call handler was able to locate her through the what3words technology, and Isla taking over the call and calmly directing paramedics to look out for a red car with a kayak on the roof.

Katherine recalled: "We’d spent the day kayaking in Monmouth with friends. I felt a bit tight-chested when we got off the water but just put it down to the fact we’d been doing quite a bit of strenuous activity.

"We’d started to make the journey home but I wasn’t getting any better, I was getting worse.

"Recognising it was an asthma attack, I pulled into a lay-by and got my nebuliser out to try and help.

"I’ve had brittle asthma since I was a month-old and have managed it my entire life with inhalers and nebulisers, but this one was especially bad. In the end, I couldn’t speak at all, and Isla said: ’Mummy, is this when I need to call 999?’"

Newly-qualified paramedics Harriett Thomas and Will Jones came to Katherine’s aid, pulling into the lay-by behind her vehicle.

Harriett said: "Isla was so calm and collected. You’d expect a child to be erratic in the circumstances but she was just so chilled. She was a little superstar."

The Trust’s Chief Executive Jason Killens, who presented Isla with a commendation, said: "Isla remained cool, calm and collected in the face of an extraordinary set of circumstances.

"Her actions that day helped us to find and triage Katherine in a time-critical emergency and probably saved her life."

Katherine was taken to the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran and made a good recovery.

Trust Chief Executive Jason Killens presented Isla with the commendation and said: "She remained cool, calm and collected in the face of an extraordinary set of circumstances.

"Her actions that day helped us to find and triage Katherine in a time-critical emergency and probably saved her life."

The what3words app helps the emergency services find people in remote locations.

It has divided the world into a grid of 3mx3m squares, and has given each square a unique combination of three words.

Giving this unique three-word combination to 999 operators in an emergency means they can establish your precise location.