Bus driver helps save girl after choking on apple Published duration 8 February

image copyright NCT image caption Mark Dawson was travelling through Wollaton when the girl began choking on the apple

A bus driver has been praised for coming to the aid of a schoolgirl who was choking on an apple.

Mark Dawson was picking up schoolchildren and other passengers in the Wollaton area of Nottingham when he noticed a girl struggling to breathe.

He stopped the bus and ran down the aisle to perform "back blows" and successfully dislodged the fruit.

Bus firm Nottingham City Transport said: "Mark's quick response and intervention is highly commendable."

Mr Dawson, who has worked as a bus driver for 10 years, was widely praised by bus users on Nottingham City Transport's Facebook page after it posted about the incident, which happened last month.

He said he first saw the girl "bent over" and coughing at the back of a bus before a fellow passenger asked for help.

'I'm not a hero'

"I looked in the mirror again and nobody moved, so I knocked it out of gear [and] ran down the centre of the bus," he added.

"I just did what I thought I was meant to do."

image caption Mark Dawson said he stopped the bus when he realised the girl needed help

While he had received some training on what to do in similar situations, Mr Dawson said it was "normal instinct" to come to her rescue.

"At the time I didn't realise what I'd done, but when I stopped at the stop to let the schoolkids off I thought, 'Oh, she could have died'.

"I'm not a hero, it's just what I'd expect anyone else to do."

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