A MUM from Stourport says she is "eternally grateful" to two women who have been awarded top national honours for saving her son from drowning.

The Stourport boy was at a water park with his dad in 2017 when he entered the pool, unable to swim, and sank to the bottom.

Zoe Harding, aged 28, from Shifnal, was swimming when she felt something brush against her foot. When she looked down she saw a boy on the bottom of the pool, face down and motionless.

She reached down and pulled him to the surface but he was blue in the face, lifeless and not breathing.

Zoe waded to the poolside with the boy in her arms and screamed for a lifeguard.

Off duty ambulance technician Emma Ames, aged 37, from Evesham, was first to answer her call.

She quickly realised that the boy had suffered heart failure and began administering CPR.

After being unconscious for around three minutes, the boy began to show signs of life and came round at the poolside before an ambulance arrived and took him to hospital, where he was kept in for two days to be monitored.

His mum Nia Reeves said the pair's quick actions are what saved her son's life.

"I'm eternally grateful to Zoe and Emma," she said. "The bottom line is they saved his life. Thanks to their quick actions my son is still here.

"There is no amount of thanks I could give them that would be enough.

"It was a really horrendous thing to go through at the time but my son was well enough to start school a week later.

"It did make me feel even more grateful for what I've got. Things like this put everything into perspective.

"My son is an exceptionally lucky little boy. He's a walking miracle."

Now Emma has been awarded a Royal Humane Society Resuscitation Certificate and Zoe has been awarded a Certificate of Commendation.

Announcing the awards at the society’s London headquarters, society secretary Andrew Chapman said: “Zoe was the right person in the right place at the right time.

"If she had not spotted [the boy] while she was swimming he would certainly have drowned. She later described the incident as the worst thing she has had to do in her life.

“However, she managed to get him to the surface and the side of the pool where Emma immediately began administering CPR.

"There is no doubt that between the two of them they were responsible for him being brought back from the brink of death.

“They are true heroines and both richly deserve the awards they are to receive.

"At the same time this is yet another incident which emphasizes the value of as many people as possible learning CPR techniques.

"I’m sure no one who learns them really wants to be called on to use them, but as this case shows, they can make the difference between life and death."

The boy, now aged six, has recently started swimming lessons.

Mum Nia said: " If what happened to my son showed me anything it's that anything can happen in an instant and that swimming is a life-saving skill.

"It took me a while to get comfortable with the idea of him swimming. It was a big thing for me.

"Even if you're a good swimmer the water can be dangerous, especially for children."