Howard Street / Percy Street Rotherham: Residents rush to help as young woman collapses and dies on street

Today, the father of the woman who collapsed walking between Howard Street and Percy Street, in Rotherham, paid tribute to those who tried to help his stricken daughter and his 10-year-old granddaughter, who was with her.

Carol Briddon had been walking with her daughter, and also with a friend, after having played a game of Dungeons and Dragons with pals at the Geek Retreat cafe on Howard Street, on Saturday afternoon, and was heading for a car park on Percy Street.

Carol, who suffered from a managed heart condition and was otherwise fit and healthy, collapsed in the street.

Her friend immediately tried to perform CPR to save her, and while he did so a nurse who had seen what had happened rushed to the scene.

But tragically, Carol, from Carlton, near Worksop, who worked in social care for Cera Care, was pronounced dead at Rotherham Hospital after being taken by ambulance.

Her dad, Martin Briddon, today praised those passers by who tried to help his daughter and his granddaughter.

He said three people waited with his granddaughter to make sure she was safe while the tragic scene was unfolding. They were helping before he himself was able to get to the scene from his home, also in Carlton. And another passer-by had gone to try to find a defibrillator machine.

Mr Briddon said: “I am so grateful that there were so many people there who were so helpful.

"To lose my daughter like that is just not right, but for the way she went, so suddenly, it is comforting to know that there were people there who helped her.

"With the trauma my granddaughter was experiencing, I am so grateful to know that there were people who took the time to be with her.”

He also praised the ambulance service for the speed with which they reached the scene. “Ambulance services have been criticised recently, but they were with Carol in minutes,” he said.

He said the family would publish details of Carol’s funeral when they are known.

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