Tomas Howells
November 2014
Tomas Howells, aged 5 years.
On the 4th October 2014, two days after Tomas’s 5th birthday, Tomas and I were enjoying a special day together. His brother James was at his grandparents for the weekend, and Tomas’s daddy was currently on exercise in Kenya. We enjoyed a lovely morning, going to the cinema to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and shopping with his birthday money. One of Tomas’s favourite foods was a meatball sub from Subway. So we decided to go there for lunch.
Whilst in the queue I felt myself come over all funny, and tried rushing my order through as I guessed I needed to eat. At the time I was 21 weeks pregnant with Tomas’s baby brother. As I was telling the man what to put on Tomas’s subway my hearing went. Tomas was stood beside me holding my hand. I could feel that I was about to go down, so let go of his hand. As I started to come around I knew I was laying on the floor. There seemed to be chaos around me as I could hear a woman on the telephone to 999, I couldn’t open my eyes or speak. I could hear Tomas so I knew he was there. I could hear him explaining to the woman and the man, also sitting on the floor with Tomas, that I was his mammy and we were at Subway alone. He told them I was pregnant, and that his daddy was away. I could feel something cold on my forehead and then I heard Tomas say “Mammy I’m keeping you cool with your bottle of Dr Pepper”. He was so calm and caring.
We waited patiently for the ambulance and I was finally able to speak, even though I could not open my eyes. Two paramedics turned up with the ambulance and helped me up. They took Tomas and I into the back of the ambulance, of course being a 5 year old I’m sure Tomas saw this as an adventure. He helped me explain to the paramedics what had happened, and he explained how he had helped. The paramedics loved him and thought he had been such a great help to me and was so brave.
When I was in the ambulance Tomas asked if he could have a subway, as the order was never completed due to me fainting before getting that far. The lady paramedic took Tomas back in, and the people in Subway very kindly gave Tomas his meal for free as he had been so helpful and brave. The paramedics even let him eat his messy meatball sub in the back of the ambulance as we waited for Tomas’ nanny to come take us home. Later that evening when Tomas and I were home he told me how he feared I had died when I fainted. He never once showed an ounce of fear during the whole thing and just tried his best to help me and help the people helping me.
Tomas was an absolute gem that day, and I was, and still am, beyond proud of him for how brave he was. As a five year old I can’t imagine how frightening it must be to watch your mum collapse before you. He really is my hero! My little trooper!
