A 999 OPERATOR has told how she received a call from a two-year-old boy whose mum had suffered an epileptic fit.

Julie Heaton, aged 44, works at the Greater Manchester Police's Leigh area operations room and took the call on Sunday evening. But the only sounds she could hear was a toddler calling 'mummy'.

Julie, who has a seven-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son, did not realise the caller was two-year-old Conor Taylor from Reddish whose mum, Clare, aged 22, was unconscious after suffering a fit.

Communications officer Julie who lives in Lowton, said: "We regularly receive calls from toddlers who have been playing with the phone and this is what I thought had happened at first.

"After talking to Conor, I still wasn't sure anything was wrong but I thought I could hear laboured breathing and groans in the background. After asking Conor several times to get his mum I decided to ask an officer and ambulance to attend the address.

"In the six years I've worked in the Area Operations Room we've received hundreds of calls from people accidentally dialling 999 as well as hundreds of malicious calls which waste valuable emergency service resources and prevent us responding to genuine calls.

"This is the first time in my experience that someone as young as Conor has made a genuine emergency call and even though he can't yet speak he possibly saved his mum's life," added Julie who worked as a detective constable with Merseyside police for 16 years.

Conor's mum was taken to Stepping Hill hospital, but later allowed home after a check up. An officer stayed at the house in Bryn Drive with Conor until Clare's partner, Keith Frankland, came home.

Clare, a policy advisor with Standard Life Healthcare, paid tribute to her son: "We think he first picked up calling 999 from watching a hospital programme. It became a bit of joke.

"We would ask him what to do if you need a doctor and Conor would say '999'.

"I began suffering blackouts last year, but it was only after seizure in January, that the doctors diagnosed me with epilepsy.

"If Conor hadn't made that phone call, I don't know what would have happened. I am very grateful to him and to everyone who helped me."

Detective Inspector Andy Maddocks from Stockport CID said: "Conor is a little hero. Fortunately this is a story with a happy ending and both his family and Greater Manchester Police are very proud of Conor."