A DRAMATIC high speed-dash through the streets of Lancaster helped save the life of a tiny baby this week.

Taxi driver Jaqueline Dixon thought she was answering a routine call when she arrived at Longlands Road on the Vale Estate on Sunday.

But within minutes she was racing against the clock to get eight-week-old Shane Collinge to Royal Lancaster Infirmary after the tot had stopped breathing.

Heroine Jaqueline flagged down a passing police car which escorted the taxi over Skerton Bridge and through the city's notorious one-way system.

Baby Shane was immediately taken into intensive care where doctors and nurses stabilised his condition. He is now doing well at Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Manchester where his mum, Sarah, has kept a bedside vigil. Shane, who was born six-weeks premature, was visiting family in the city with his gran, Elaine Collinge, who was full of praise for cabbie Jacqueline and PC Bruce Irvine.

"We were at home when the baby took a turn for the worse and started to look very ill," said Elaine: "It was terrifying. I ran out onto the street and was shouting the 'baby's dying' when I saw the taxi. I was very distressed but the woman driver saw a police car and flashed him over.

"He was fantastic and gave us a police escort over Skerton bridge and to the hospital. We were really travelling at some speed and we were all hysterical. But when we got to the hospital the nurses had him inside in no time. Thank God he was all right."

During the emergency Elaine didn't have time to thank all those involved but had this to say: "I'd really like to thank the woman taxi driver and buy her some chocolates or something and also the policeman. I was responsible for the baby and he looked like he was dying. But thanks to her and the policeman we got to hospital just in time."

Modest Jacqueline later contacted the hospital to check up on baby Shane but refrained from talking publicly about the incident.

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