A SOLDIER praised by the Queen for tending to colleagues blown up in Afganistan turned hero again at an event nearer home.

Sinead Dodds was celebrating her birthday with her family the day after a knee operation that temporarily left her in a wheelchair.

Sinead, who turned 23 yesterday, Saturday, August 1, leapt out of her chair to administer CPR to a man who became ill at the West Somerset Steam Fayre.

She tended to him until paramedics turned up and he was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

Sinead, a medic in the Army, received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery last year after her truck was blown up in Afganistan after being hit by an explosives-laden vehicle driven by Taliban terrorists.

Despite being injured herself, she administered first aid to her colleagues.

Sinead told the County Gazette that she and her mother were first on the scene when the man became ill at the steam fayre.

She added: "She (my mother) helped me get him off of a chair and on to the floor and into the recovery position.

"I realised he was not breathing and at this point our lovely local nurse Wendy, who works at the Bishops Lydeard doctor practice, came running.

"She was amazing and deserves some recognition.

"I started CPR. The paramedics arrived and I was helped up by a gentleman in overalls who was assisting with the CPR.

"Wendy then took over, even when the paramedics came as she was doing CPR for a very long time before the ambulance came.

"She's an amazing nurse and in high regard from all local village members."

 

Sinead dodds