Background information

Mum was in a clothing outlet shop in Cardigan on the morning of Monday 8th December when she collapsed with a heart attack caused by arrythmia (her heart stopped beating steadily and went into vibration).

The shop assistants rang 999 and the operator talked a customer through CPR until the ambulance arrived and whisked Mum off to hospital in Carmarthen.

That day the doctors thought that it was unlikely she would live, and if she did live, she could have severe brain damage.

Dad sat with her all afternoon but she was completely unresponsive. He then rang round the family and my brothers Andy, Ed and Jeremy, Andy's wife Vicky, and me and my husband Matt, all dropped everything and headed for Wales.

On Monday late evening Mum started moving and responding to light and movement around her.

By Tuesday morning she was semi-conscious, smiling at us and at pictures of her grandchildren, and was moved out of intensive care to a coronary care ward and fitted with a temporary pacemaker.

On Wednesday she was able to talk to us and hold a conversation, but she couldn't remember anything of what had been said to her, for example she kept asking what day it was without seeming to remember that she'd just asked that, although her long-range memory was clearer.

On Thursday her short-term memory had vastly improved. Although she sometimes still asked the same thing twice without realising, more often she would say, for example, "What day is it? I know I've just asked you that".

Today (Friday), she has odd flashes of what happened the previous day, as well as being able to remember conversations and happenings of today.

The doctors say her recovery is miraculous and but for the lady who did CPR on her, Mum would probably not be here now. Instead, she's very much herself, well enough to be bored with being in hospital and to talk and laugh with us.

She still has to go to Morriston hospital in Swansea to have a permanent pacemaker fitted, which should hopefully be within the next few days, and then we're hoping to have her home for Christmas.

In the words of a neighbour, that will be the best Christmas present our family has ever had. On Monday we really did think she was a goner.

We've started this blog to keep all Mum's and our family's friends up to date with how she's doing each day. We'd love to be able to ring round everyone every day and tell you personally, but Mum has so many good friends that this would be impossible.

So please watch this blog for a daily bulletin on where Mum is and how she is doing.

Emily