A cat saved his mistress's life after she had collapsed and slipped into a diabetic coma.

Ten-year-old Misty stood over the prone body of Irena Scott-Tillbrook and cried until she slowly regained consciousness and summoned help.

"If the coma had deepened I could easily have died," she said. "Misty obviously sensed that something was wrong otherwise I would not have been found until the next morning and I would very likely have been dead."

Grandmother Irena, 57, of Heybridge Road, Ingatestone, lives alone with her two Burmese cats Misty and Mimi.

She said: "I was out cold for more than two hours and came slowly round to the sound of this terrible caterwauling. Misty was standing over me wailing fit to burst.

"I couldn't move because the glucose level in my brain had dropped so low. I finally managed to press my emergency life-line button and paramedics arrived within minutes thank God."

Thanks, Misty: Irena cuddles up to the cat who saved her

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