Delilah, 4, Thanked for Helping on Mum's 999 Call

South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb), the trust that answers 999 calls across Kent and Medway, Dartford included, has given a bravery certificate to a four-year-old girl who helped one of its call handlers while her mum was seriously ill.

Delilah relayed the call handler’s questions to her mum, Holly, and when talking on the phone became too hard, went to find a neighbour. The trust has not said where in Kent the family lives.

A call to the Medway control room

In March 2026 Holly, a mum of three, was at home with her partner, Delilah and the couple’s two-year-old twins when she developed chest pain, struggled to breathe and could no longer feel her hands or feet, the trust said.

Her partner dialled 999. With the twins needing him, he passed the phone to Delilah, who spoke to Emergency Medical Advisor (EMA) Chloe in SECAmb’s Medway Emergency Operations Centre. Delilah put Chloe’s questions to her mum and passed on her symptoms, helping Chloe gather what she needed to arrange the right response.

Delilah has speech and language difficulties. As communicating grew harder for her, and with Holly also struggling to speak, she handed the phone back to her dad and went for help. She knocked on three neighbours’ doors before she found someone who could come and support the family.

The call was triaged as a Category 2 emergency, and a crew reached the house within 15 minutes of the 999 call. Delilah stayed calmly by her mum’s side while the crew assessed her. Holly was taken to Tunbridge Wells Hospital with a suspected stroke.

Back to meet the crew

Six months on, Delilah went with her mum, dad and siblings to SECAmb’s Paddock Wood Make Ready Centre to meet Chloe, Operational Team Leader Alex and Paramedic Charlotte. The three presented her with a certificate recognising her bravery, showed her round an ambulance and let her switch on its lights.

“We’re so proud of Delilah,” Holly said. “It was a frightening moment for all of us, but she listened to Chloe and helped me answer her questions. She stayed by my side while the paramedics took care of me and remained calm in a very upsetting situation. It meant a lot to come back as a family and recognise her bravery.”

Chloe said: “Delilah did an incredible job. She listened carefully and passed my questions to her mum, helping us understand what was happening. It was lovely to meet her and her family in person and present her with a certificate for her bravery.”

The service that covers Dartford

SECAmb covers Kent and Medway, Surrey, East and West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and part of north-east Hampshire, about 3,600 square miles and more than 4.9 million people. It takes 999 calls from the public and urgent calls from health professionals, and runs NHS 111 across Kent and Sussex. It employs more than 4,000 staff at 60 sites, more than half of them clinicians.

As an NHS foundation trust it has a free public membership: members get a newsletter with health tips, invitations to ambulance service events and notice of planned changes to services (secamb.nhs.uk).