A YOUNG first aider saved the life of an elderly man who lay unconscious on a railway line minutes before a train was due.

Fifteen-year-old Tamie Kellard jumped down on to the track and opened the man's airways after spotting him in a crumpled heap near Pershore Station.

With the help of her 13-year-old sister and a passing lorry driver, they managed to haul the man on to the platform from where he was taken to Ronkswood Hospital.

The brave St John Ambulance first aider said she first became concerned when the "drunken" man, who had been sitting on a bench close to where she was waiting for a train, suddenly disappeared.

"Me and my sister Charlene were waiting to go shopping in Evesham," she said.

"We turned our heads to talk to our mates and when we looked back a few minutes later, just the man's bags were there."

The concerned teenager, of Abbey View, Pinvin peered over the edge of the platform and, to her horror, saw him lying still on the track.

"The train was due at 3.03pm and it was 3 o'clock," she said. "My friends went to press the emergency button. And the train was stopped.

"I hurried down on to the track and found the man was breathing but unconscious.

"His pulse was racing so I tilted his head back to open his airways and put my fingers in his mouth to check his airway wasn't blocked."

Pershore High School pupil Tamie, the proud owner of corporal stripes in first aid, said the man was starting to breathe more easily when Charlene, a St John Ambulance cadet, returned with a lorry driver, tissue and water.

"We got him up on the platform but I had to open his airways again and put him in the recovery position," she said. "Luckily, we had only just got back from a first aid camp and it was fresh in my memory."

Worcester police, who assisted at the scene on Wednesday afternoon, have since written to Tamie commending her on her actions.

They confirmed investigations were being undertaken by the British Transport Police.

No more details about the man Tamie saved have been released.

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