A FOUR-year-old has been praised for her "incredible bravery" after using Alexa to call for help when her mum suffered an epileptic seizure.

Lyla Leathem, from Bridgwater, used quick thinking to call her great-grandmother, 56, for help on Sunday morning, August 25, when her mum Leah Biggs, 24, became unwell.

Unable to get into her mum Leah's phone, which required facial recognition to unlock, Lyla went upstairs to ask the Amazon Alexa device to call her great-grandmother who then rushed from Taunton to help.

Lyla had previously been shown how to use Alexa to call family "as a game" to help her remember, as her mum suffers from regular epileptic fits at night which can be "life-threatening".

Her great-grandmother said: "I'd had a call from Leah in the morning and she said she'd had a big fit in the night and bitten her tongue, then we texted a few hours later and she didn't need me to come over and was just resting.

"It wasn't long after that that I had a call come through from Leah's number, not a video call as usual, and when I answered it was Lyla saying 'Na Na mummy's having a fit.'

"I said 'It's okay, I'm on my way'. She knows I live in Taunton and how far the distance is, 'go to mummy and stroke her and tell her it's all going to be ok, I'm on my way'."

She added: "I was so proud because we've got the Alexa in Leah's bedroom because she has a lot of nocturnal seizures.

"But Leah was downstairs on Sunday, so Lyla must have been weighing it up, in that situation she would have wanted to stay with her mum but she thought 'right I have to leave my mum and go and get help'. 

"I'm so proud of her, that must have been such a difficult decision for a four-year-old."

Lyla is "confident, loud, a bundle of energy, really cheeky, and just tiny", her great-grandmother said. She is starting school in September.

The proud great-grandmother, who doesn't want to be named, reached out to the Taunton Matters Facebook group for help finding a "Well Done" certificate on short notice.

Her request was met with dozens of offers of help, messages praising her for her "amazing bravery" and hundreds of likes from locals who helped create and print a certificate for Lyla which her great-grandmother presented to her on Wednesday, August 28.

Lyla's great-grandmother said: "The people who offered help, nobody would take any money, they're fabulous. She's now got certificates from 'all of Taunton Matters', they're such a good bunch."

Mum Leah added to the Facebook post: "I’m amazed by all these compliments she’s had. Thank you all she truly is something special, I’m very lucky to have her."