Two children were hailed heroines after keeping their heads and saving the life of their dad when he suffered a seizure and stopped breathing at the family home in Telford.

It looked as though dad Sean Kirby, a practical joker, was fooling around but 11-year-old Paige and nine-year-old Sophie soon realised something was seriously wrong.

They quickly raised the alarm by running to tell 37-year-old Sean’s partner, Terri Utting, and she tended him until he started breathing again.

She then took him to the Princess Royal Hospital where he was checked over and he is now back home in Willowfields, Woodside, none the worse for his ordeal.

Miss Utting, 43, said: “Paige and Sophie were sitting down to dinner when their dad started to behave very oddly.

“He is a bit of a joker at the best of times, and they initially thought he was playing around acting like a zombie.

“He became extremely red in the face and stopped breathing and they quickly realised that something was seriously wrong and tried to get their dad to talk to them.”

The pair then called our for Miss Utting, a carer at a nursing home, and she realised her partner was having some kind of epileptic fit. The incident happened at the end of last month.

She added: “Fortunately after a minute or so he recovered and started to breathe.

“He was taken to hospital and checked out by the A&E team and is still awaiting further tests to decide what caused the incident, but is absolutely fine besides that.”

Miss Utting added: “I would dearly like to take this opportunity to tell them on behalf of myself, their dad and all the family that we are all so very proud of how they dealt with the situation, during and after, and to tell them how much we love them.

“In my opinion and that of our family they are nothing short of heroines.”