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A school business manager has been hailed a hero after battling for 15 minutes to save the life of a seven-year-old boy who collapsed during football practice.

Christine Kidman rushed onto the sports field and performed emergency heart massage to keep little Harrison Lovett alive after he stopped breathing.

Just a day earlier, Christine, 53, had taken a refresher course in the CPR technique that meant the sports-mad youngster survived.

Her dramatic intervention came as she was working in the office at Peter Gladwin Primary School in Portslade, East Sussex, when Harrison suddenly fell to the ground at his after school football club.

Harrison's parents now say only her first aid training kept the youngster alive before his heart could be restarted when paramedics arrived with a defibrillator.

Relieved father Alex Lovett said:"Word's cannot express our admiration and love for the lady who saved our son's life.

In a letter to the British Heart Foundation praising Mrs Kidman, he added:"Thanks to her he is making a full recovery and will live a pretty much regular life. It was a terrifying ordeal.

"Christine quickly found Harrison was not breathing and started CPR on our son.

Read more:Mum of footballer who collapsed on pitch thanks people who saved his life

"Cardiac consultants told us the CPR work that Christine had carried out had indeed saved Harrison's life."

(Image: PA)

Harrison was taken to hospital in nearby Brighton but was later transferred to the Evelina Hospital in London, which specialises in treating children, where he remained unconscious for 48 hours.

He was found to have suffered from arrhythmia, an undiagnosed irregular heartbeat, but the quick reactions of the school aide meant he could be revived by the medical staff.

As he recovered Harrison and his parents had a tearful bedside reunion with Mrs Kidman.

And this week he was able to return to school to rejoin his classmates and thanked an emotional Mrs Kidman.

The manager, who normally focuses on the school budget, said:"It was so lucky I had just completed a CPR refresher course 24 hours earlier and my training just kicked in.

"My 18-year-old son was organising the after-school football club when he came racing over to say Harrison had collapsed on the pitch.

"He wasn't breathing and trying to save him was the longest 15 minutes of my life. I was too busy working on Harrison to really think what might be the outcome.

"I'm not a hero. To see him now back at school and healthy is all the thanks I need. He is a lovely little chap.

"He has presented me with a lovely card in which he wrote 'thank you for saving me' and stuck lots of hearts on it. There were tears all round," added Mrs Kidman, who doubles as school first aider with her business manager duties.

Mr Lovett and his wife Rachael Lovett, who run a jewellery business, have now joined with Mrs Kidman to raise £1,000 to get a defibrillator for the school of 200 pupils.

Mrs Kidman has been recommended for an award by the British Heart Foundation for her life-saving treatment.

She said:"Harrison was very lucky but this shows we need to have defibrillators in all our schools."