A New Zealand teenager has used her first aid training to help a woman cyclist who had suffered a bad fall.

Sarah Jenson, 12, was walking through an alleyway when she saw a woman who had fallen off her bike and was lying on the ground, unable to move and in obvious pain.

Sarah first ensured the woman was in the recovery position and then: “She responded to questions, so I knew her airways were clear. I moved her leg and kept her still as she said her neck hurt.

“She also was having trouble breathing.”

Sarah then used her mobile phone to call an ambulance and asked a couple of bystanders to keep an eye open for the ambulance.

Sarah’s teacher Kat Wills later said: “By the time teaching staff got there, everything was under control. She even told me to ring her mother as she was going in the ambulance to see things through.

“I know adults who wouldn’t have acted as calmly and been as effective as Sarah.”

Ms Wills also praised the first aid course. “The course didn’t cost my students anything. But it is worth its weight in gold to give students those skills. It is absolutely invaluable,” she said.