11-year-old school boy hailed a hero for 999 rescue drama

6:32pm Saturday 6th October 2007

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James Norman, a pupil at York's Archbishop Holgate CE School, was one of a group of six friends who helped a woman who they found lying unconscious in woods on their way home from school.

The group were making their way home from school at 3.45pm on Wednesday when they found the woman on the ground in woods near the Next Generation Gym on Hull Road, close to James's home in Thief Lane.

James used a friend's mobile phone to call 999 and tried to rouse the woman and kept talking to her until the ambulance arrived, a short while later.

Now James's calm reaction and Good Samaritan instincts have earned him praise from both the ambulance service and his head master, John Harris.

James said: "We were walking home when my friend said he saw a woman lying on the ground. I said to phone the ambulance because she might be hurt and took his phone to phone the ambulance.

"She was on the ground and I didn't know if she was conscious. She seemed to come round and I spoke to her but she could only tell me she was called Becky and she was in respite care.

"She seemed really confused, so I stayed with her until the ambulance came. It all happened quite fast really."

The woman was taken by ambulance to York Hospital to be checked out.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: "James's actions were extremely brave. For a young boy to help someone who has collapsed, by calling 999 and waiting for an ambulance, is commendable.

"His ability to have kept a cool head when faced with this daunting situation greatly helped the patient."

Mr Harris said: "James and five of his friends from Archbishop Holgate's showed real initiative and prompt action.

"They demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility and very good care and concern for others.

"This was real teamwork in action and they are to be congratulated on what they did."

James's mum, Claire Norman, a Mental Health Act administrator, said: "I'm very proud of him, because there were no adults for him to ask what to do, the kids were on their own and quite frightened, because it could have been somebody on drugs.

"Some adults might not have done what James did. He knows that he has got to be careful of people on drugs, but he did exactly the right thing."