LONDON, March 22 (UPI) -- Disability activists say they're backing a British mother given a $145 parking ticket when she stopped to revive her severely disabled son.

Penny Batkin, 40, was taking her son, Freddie, 4, to a hospice in Hampton when he began gasping for breath and turning blue, said Richmond Aid, a charity for people with disabilities.


Batkin incurred the ticket by illegally stopping her car on the pavement to resuscitate him. To make matters worse, Batkin said, the Richmond Council's parking office later refused to rescind the ticket even after she explained what had happened, The Daily Telegraph reported Sunday.

Richmond Aid officials say they hope local authorities can find it "in their hearts to rescind a parking fine incurred by a desperate mother who had no choice if she was to save the life of her child."

"We are so appalled we struggle to find words," said one aid official.