A PLUCKY two-year-old raised the alarm when her dad suffered a suspected stroke.

Jennifer Tilley hammered on a neighbour's door because her father, David, was temporarily paralysed down one side and couldn't reach the phone.

Thanks to her swift actions, Mr Tilley was safely taken to hospital where he is undergoing tests.

The drama started on Friday morning after Jennifer's mum, Janet, had left for Fairfield Hospital where she works as an anaesthetics nurse.

"David said he didn't feel very well but he was OK," said Mrs Tilley of Ashwood Drive, Brandlesholme.

"But later he started feeling much worse. He thought he had had a stroke. It took him ten minutes to get from the kitchen into a chair but he could not get to the phone."

Jennifer was upstairs playing, and her dad called her down and asked her to go to next door for help. But the crisis wasn't quite over yet: their neighbour, Dave, was out, having driven the Tilleys' son Stuart (13) to school.

"Dave pulled up and found Jennifer pounding on the porch door," said Mrs Tilley. "His wife, Janette, hadn't heard because she was in the shower.

"Jennifer bolted upstairs after being let in and said 'you've got to come, my daddy's not well!'."

An ambulance took Mr Tilley (50), a maintenance engineer, to Bury General Hospital. "Friday was a dreadful day, it was all just a blur," said Mrs Tilley.

"David's had a brain scan and we're waiting for the results of other tests."

He is now recovering at home.

And what of her young daughter, who Mrs Tilley herself describes as precocious?

"She's a star!" she said. "She just thinks he's got a poorly leg.

"She has a whale of a time when she goes to the hospital, even though people are ill - she thinks it's marvellous!"

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