A LARGS carer has been hailed a hero after saving her friend's life after she almost died on her bathroom floor.

Annette Oswell lost half of her body's blood supply after an ulcer caused one of her blood vessels to rupture.

But the 63-year-old had no idea the vessel had burst - and that she was slowly bleeding to death.

She explained: "I was constantly feeling tired and sleeping for hours at a time, but I had no idea what was going on inside me."

Her illness finally came to light when she collapsed during a visit from best friend Elizabeth Stirratt at her home in Largs.

She said: "I went to the bathroom but suddenly felt very weak and didn't even have the energy to call for help."

Elizabeth soon realised something badly was wrong and raised the alarm, getting paramedics to the house in the nick of time.

Annette told the News that if it wasn’t for her much-loved carer, she believes she would have passed away.

She said: “I couldn’t get back up, I didn’t even have the energy to call on Liz but I knew she would come and investigate and she did.

“If Liz wasn’t there for me then I wouldn’t be here today. I would have gone into a coma and just slipped away.

“My whole family says if it wasn’t for her then I wouldn’t be here. She's a real hero in my eyes."

Paramedics checked Annette over but she was not taken to hospital - however says Elizabeth sensed something was seriously wrong.

She said: “After the ambulance crew left I fell asleep but what I didn’t know was that Liz has come back round at 2am and 5am in the morning to check on me.

“From her experience as a carer, she seen the signs I was losing a lot of blood. When I woke up my daughter had driven down and they were both standing there with the paramedics again.

“When I eventually got to hospital, I had to get five units of blood put into me, which is more than half of what I should have in my body.

“They found out what was wrong and now I'm getting better every day."

With Annette on the road to recovery, the friends, who met through their love of dogs several years ago, have become inseparable.

Annette said: “Liz has been amazing ever since. She’s been in every day to see if I am okay - she’s been terrific and nothing is ever a bother to her.

“She calls in every night after doing her shifts to make sure I’m okay and gets me anything I need for the next day. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Elizabeth, 56, was nominated by her sister Ann for our key worker heroes supplement for her outstanding work in the community during the coronavirus pandemic.

She told the News of the night she saved her best friend's life.

Elizabeth explained: “Her colour was ghastly, I knew she wasn’t right.

“I’d suspected something was badly wrong as she just wanted to sleep, but didn't want to worry her.

“She was in the bathroom nearly half an hour and I decided I needed to go and check to make sure she was alright - I'm just glad I acted when I did."

Elizabeth says it was not just down to her, and paid tribute to her sister and friend for assisting in their time of need.

She said: “We managed to sit her up and phoned them to come round and help me. I’m so thankful to my big sister and my pal Alison for helping me.

“I then came back during the night because I couldn’t sleep for worrying about Annette.

“It’s amazing what you do when the adrenalin is pumping. I was exhausted but she is my close friend and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.”