Manchester girl 'saves' gran from carbon monoxide poisoning after school session on gas danger

A 10-year-old schoolgirl “saved” her grandmother from carbon monoxide poisoning after attending a workshop at school.

Connie Burslem, who is now 11, attended a Crucial Crew workshop with St Mary’s RC Primary School in Eccles, Greater Manchester, in March.

At the session she learned about police, transport, antisocial and illegal behaviour, as well as the potential dangers of carbon monoxide (CO).

After the class each child was given a CO alarm to take away, but as Connie already had two at home she donated hers to her 79-year-old gran Pauline, who lives in Cadishead, Salford.

“A couple of days later, the alarm went off, and I thought, ‘What’s that?'” Pauline said. “I went in the kitchen and I realised it was very loud, and I thought, ‘I wonder if it’s faulty?’

"That was my first thought because I’d only had it up two days.

“I rang the emergency helpline… and someone from Cadent came in a quarter of an hour. He went all over the house, everywhere, every room, and he said, ‘It’s your cooker, it’s actually leaking carbon monoxide’.”

Pauline had been feeling unwell in the weeks leading up to the incident, experiencing headaches and “dizzy spells”, but her GP could not give her a conclusive diagnosis.

Once the faulty cooker was removed Pauline started feeling better almost immediately.

Pauline says without the alarm she may not be here, and now, alongside her granddaughter, wants to highlight the potential dangers of CO leaks.

She said: “If she hadn’t gone to the Crucial Crew workshop, and she hadn’t got the alarm and she hadn’t given it to me, then who knows?

“If I hadn’t had the alarm, the Cadent man said to me, ‘You’d have probably become more sleepy and you could have easily just gone to sleep’.

"I thought, if that was a Friday night, nobody would know or think about it until Monday, and then you’d be dead. She literally did save my life.”

Pauline added: “You always think it happens to somebody else and you always think you’re invincible. I know they say it’s the silent killer… but people don’t tend to think about carbon monoxide.

"In the case of people my age, if you did get dizzy spells, don’t just presume it’s old age.”

Asked how Connie felt after “saving her Nanna’s life”, she said “heroic” and “tremendous”. She added: “Don’t expect it not to happen to you because it can.”