TWO schoolgirls have been praised for going ’above and beyond’ the call of duty to help a woman lying in a field bleeding with head injuries.

Blaise Kay, 15, and Jessica Duckett, 15, ignored the 30-year-old woman’s pleas to be left alone after seeing the blood and called 999.

The St Bede’s RC High School pupils remained calm and trekked one-and-a-half miles to the nearest main road - Preston Old Road, Blackburn, - to flag down paramedics and lead them straight to her around 3pm on February 18.

The pair, both from Feniscowles, Blackburn, were given certificates of commendation for their actions from the ambulance service during a special assembly at school.

They were commended for their ‘quick thinking and courage when faced with a medical emergency’.

Paramedic Gareth Barnes, who attended the scene, said: “The girls went above and beyond what people of their age would do.

“The weather was cold so she could have suffered with hypothermia had they left her.

“She was in an isolated field and if they hadn’t seen her she could have been there for a lot longer.

“The woman had a big dog and Jessica looked after it while we treated the woman.

“They continued to look after the dog and carried our bags while we took the woman to the back to the ambulance.”

The girls initially saw the dog around 11.30am but did not know a woman was injured in the field.

Later that afternoon they saw the woman as they made their way to Witton Park.

Paramedics discovered she had facial, leg and ankle injuries when they examined her.

Blaise said: “I was pretty shocked when I first saw the blood and that’s when we thought we should call 999 even though she told us to leave her alone.

"The woman thanked us in the ambulance.

“We did what anyone else would have done.

Jessica added: “It was nice of the paramedic to come down and give us the certificates.”

No details have been released on the identity of the woman or how she came to be injured.