A press photographer’s swift action may have saved a five-year-old’s life when she began choking and turned blue at an official event.

Grant Falvey, of the Kent Messenger, spotted Ruby Gadsby choking on a meatball during a school dinner with village pensioners.

He had taken the girl’s picture with pensioner Rose Allen just a few minutes before but when he next saw her she could not breathe and had turned blue.

Grant (right) said: “I knew what to do straight away. I gave her five smacks on the back, then when it hadn’t come loose, I gave her another five firm hits on the back again.

“It was really bad, she was turning blue and I knew if I didn’t do something soon, it was going to be very serious indeed.

“She was in a state because she couldn’t breathe. I looked right into her eyes and told her to cough several times. She tried and after a few goes, suddenly the meatball that had got stuck shot out across the table.”

He knew what to do because as a retained fireman, he had recently been on a first aid refresher course – which included coping with incidents of choking.

Grant, a father-of-four, added: “I was calm at the time but afterwards I was a bit shaken. I was glad I remembered what to do and just got on with it.

“I know, as a father myself, you have to always be careful to cut their food up properly.”

Deputy head teacher Julie Silk said: “There certainly wasn’t any panic and Grant just handled it brilliantly.

“Ruby was a little shaken but recovered very quickly and she insisted that she wanted to go out to play afterwards. She didn’t realise the seriousness of the situation.”

Ruby’s parents were informed of the incident and were pleased with the way it was handled. The school has decided to cut its meatballs in half in future.

The school, in Headcorn, near Maidstone, has five trained first-aiders. It organises the regular dinners with pensioners a couple of times each half term to allow the youngsters and the elderly to mix and chat.

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