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Eleven-year-old Maria Rowe kept calm after her dad, John, 65, stopped breathing.
Without her cool head and basic knowledge of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) she'd learned from being in the Badgers, her dad could have been dead within minutes.
Maria even managed to calm down her mother who was terrified and upset after seeing her husband unconscious.
Maria of Redruth, Cornwall, was watching TV when she heard her dad wheezing in his study.
Maria said: "I ran to him and started shouting 'Daddy, Daddy can you hear me?'
"But he didn't answer. He looked as though he was sleeping. There was no time to panic so I told him I was going to call the ambulance and dialled 999."
When the operator answered Maria calmly gave him her name and address. When he asked if she could do CPR to his astonishment and relief she said yes.
But before Maria could tend to her dad, her mum Sara, 52, arrived home from her cleaning job at a local school and started screaming.
She said: "John's face had gone white and he wasn't breathing. I slapped him and said 'don't leave us' but he wasn't responding. I told myself he was gone."
Fortunately, Maria remained cool. She told her mum to stop shouting and then instructed her to move her dad on to the floor so she could start CPR.
"I was running on adrenalin," she said.
"All I could think of was trying to save my dad. The shock came afterwards."
The paramedics told Maria that her dad had suffered a heart attack, his second in 13 years and that her actions had kept him alive.
Dave Christophers from St John Ambulance said: "I don't think she realises the importance of what she has done.
"She calmly went to school the next morning as if nothing had happened."
Thanks to his daughter, John is now recovering at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
"When I visit him in hospital I try to make him laugh and he calls me his hero," said Maria.
More on Parentdish: Does your child know what to do in an emergency?