A NURSE from Bolton proved to be a quick-thinking heroine when she was confronted with a mid-air medical emergency.

Helen Turner was on a Thomas Cook flight returning with her family from holiday when drama set in around an hour after take-off.

The 27-year-old, of Boscow Road, Little Lever, said: "We were coming back from Cyprus and a man appeared to have a stroke on board.

"His wife alerted the cabin crew. She had stood up quite distressed and said: 'My husband is having a funny turn.'

"The cabin crew didn't know what to do and they actually got the defibrillator machine ready.

"They asked for a medic over the speakers and I went and helped.

"I've never had to do something like that before."

Ms Turner left her son Joshua, aged six, with her parents, her sister and her nephew and went to check on the British victim who was slumped in his seat.

She said: "The gentleman was having a stroke.

"He wasn't responding, his face had drooped to one side, his eyes had rolled back in his head — and he didn't have much of a pulse.

"I just kept assessing him and his pulse and the cabin crew wanted to know if we could safely fly on.

"I said we needed to stop as we couldn't help him, with him like that, on the plane.

"We didn't have any medicine to give him and there was not a lot we could realistically do.

"I had to go into the cockpit and sign the captain's incident form."

Ms Turner's quick-thinking decision forced the diversion of the 11.50pm flight to Sofia Airport in Bulgaria in eastern Europe and the aircraft touched down in the early hours of Sunday.

"The local doctors came on board and assessed him," she said.

"I don't speak Bulgarian and they didn't speak much English but I managed to communicate the man had had a stroke.

"They quickly took him off."

The ill passenger was immediately transferred to hospital and his wife and the other members of their party disembarked and their luggage was unloaded.

The flight took off again and landed at Manchester Airport with a three hour delay.

Ms Turner has been qualified as a mental health nurse for four years and works at Salford Royal Hospital in Salford.

She said: "It was pretty surreal and you never expect that kind of thing to happen to you. It happened so quickly.

"My mum said afterwards 'I'm really proud of you' and my son said his mum was really good to the man."

Ms Turner does not know the condition of the stroke victim, who is thought to be from Wigan.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook Airlines said: "On occasions, medical emergencies do happen mid-flight and while crews are trained in advanced first aid and have 24 hour expert medical advice accessible, it's great to often have medical experts on our aircraft too.

“In this case it seems the often fictional 'is there a doctor on board?' call was real and we're extremely grateful for the off-duty nurse's support.”