Nicola Chadwick was visiting the local Christmas lights switch-on with her family. As she was putting her daughter, Emily, into her car seat, she collapsed. At just 38, she was unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

What was a Christmas tradition for their family had quickly become a nightmare. Nicola’s husband, Ben, began performing CPR.

"We'd gone into Clitheroe to see the Christmas lights and the nativity display. I remember being really excited to see Emily looking at the Christmas lights," Nicola says, remembering the incident in November 2019.

"I don't personally remember anything. I've been told since that I was strapping Emily into the back of the car and collapsed."

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Within minutes, members of the public offered their help, but to no avail. Critical care paramedics Mikey and Lee from the North West Air Ambulance Charity saw the call come in for a 37-year-old female in cardiac arrest.

They mobilised immediately in the critical care vehicle and within 20 minutes they had arrived at the scene. But Nicola was still on the roadside, unresponsive - and Mikey and Lee had to work hard to restart the mum's heart.

"I can remember when we got the call through for Nicola. We were in the failing light, so we'd got into dusk," said critical care paramedic Mikey.

"We weren't flying on an aircraft anymore and we'd moved onto one of our critical care vehicles."

When the paramedics arrived, they gave shocks via a defibrillator to try and restart her heart. It remained touch-and-go for Nicola as the paramedics tried to save her life.

They administered a further shock as they discovered Nicola had an extremely rare heart rhythm. Her heart briefly started - but then a second cardiac arrest followed.

She required a further shock, and after a brief round of CPR, her heart started beating again. The critical care paramedics were then able to give Nicola drugs to sedate her and protect her brain function as they accompanied her in the ambulance to hospital.

"She still remained very unstable. Her heart rate was low, her blood pressure was low, so that required the drugs that we carry as critical care paramedics," said Lee.

Without their lifesaving intervention, Nicola wouldn’t have survived. "As a service, we're looking to bring the hospital to the patient. We're trying to bring that level of critical care directly to the patient and the patient's side," shared Mikey.

"As her blood pressure improved, so did her consciousness level," added Lee. "I remember walking out of the department with Mikey and just saying how much of an excellent Christmas would it be for that family to be reunited."

During her stay in hospital, Nicola was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), and she was able to make it home for Christmas with her family. "When I found out that I could be home for Christmas, it was just the best feeling in the world," she said.

"It was so nice to be at home in my PJs, relaxed, watching Christmas movies and playing with Emily's toys."

One year on, and Nicola has fully recovered. She is saying thank you to the north north west-based charity that saved her life by launching their Christmas Campaign, ‘Message in a Bauble’. Nicola and her family recently visited Mikey and Lee at the Charity’s air base to thank the team for saving her life.

She called the pair her 'guardian angels' in an emotional moment of telling her story: “There never seem to be enough words or the right words to thank Mikey and Lee, they are heroes to us, and I’m sure to countless other families. We couldn’t believe it when we found out you were a charity-run organisation.

“If it weren’t for Mikey and Lee, there’s a very high possibility that I wouldn’t be here now. I wouldn’t be able to watch Emily grow up, and she wouldn’t have a mum.”

Ben, Nicola’s husband, said: “When Mikey and Lee arrived at the scene, although it was obvious how critical the situation was, I had a feeling of reassurance from them that was a relief from the absolute panic I was feeling. Because of them, Nicola is still here with me and Emily.”

From the paramedics' perspective, this is why they do the job. Lee continued: "To see them today, telling us that they're going to enjoy this next Christmas like no other Christmas before, just makes us realise why we do this job."

Critical care paramedic Mikey added: “I think both of us wanted to see Nicola home safe, I remember talking about the impact - her young daughter still has a mum, and her husband still has a wife. Meeting the family was great.

"I don't think I will ever be able to express how either of us felt seeing them all together laughing and joking.”

The ‘Message in a Bauble’ campaign will give everyone across the North West a chance to say thank you and pass on festive messages to the crew members, who will be working as usual over the Christmas period. "It's great to have messages from all the people who support us, it's something that gives us the encouragement and determination to carry on doing what we do," said Lee.

Those messages are vital after a difficult day, difficult week, agreed Mikey.

For more information, and to find out how you can get involved with the ‘Message in a Bauble’ campaign, head to https://nwaa.info/Bauble.