A FAST-THINKING Cardrona resident who helped save the life of a one-year-old girl who had stopped breathing has been hailed a "hero" by the infant's family.

Robin Waddell was honoured for his role in helping Erin Brown at a Lothian and Borders Police Meritorious Awards ceremony at its Fettes headquarters in Edinburgh on Thursday.

He was painting a friend's house when he heard her terrified mum Nadia scream that her daughter, now aged two, had stopped breathing.

And the 54-year-old agricultural advisor, who was first to react, used CPR to revive her before the emergency services arrived.

Speaking to the Peeblesshire News this week, Robin said: "It was huge relief when she sprang back to life, it would have been an absolute tragedy if she'd wasn't able to get help.

"I am not sure how it had happened. I heard Nadia cry out 'my daughter's stopped breathing!' so I ran across the road as quick as I could to see what had happened. All I remember is running across to perform CPR on her. I laid her out on the grass and thankfully she was not long in coming round."

The drama unfolded in Cardrona Way, Cardrona, in October last year. Robin said: "My employer at the time had put me through a first aid training course around nine or 10 months beforehand. If the incident had happened before that course I would not have known what to do."

But he added: "At the end of the day I was just at the right place at the right time. To me, all that mattered was that the child was fine."

Smiling Erin and her family, who are also from Cradrona, were reunited with Robin by the Peeblesshire News this week. And they thanked him personally for helping to save her life.

Nadia, who is pictured with her husband John and their three children, said: "I don't know how to thank Robin, he saved my daughter's life. I was absolutely terrified. Without his intervention, the worst could have happened and for that, I am forever thankful to him."