A GROUP of youngsters in Yate have been praised for helping paramedics reach an injured patient in dense woodland.

The primary schoolchildren directed ambulance staff to Ridge Wood where a 13-year-old boy had fallen from a rope swing and broken both his wrists.

Ebony and Shania Taylor were with their mother Michelle when they found the injured boy last Wednesday afternoon.

Ebony, nine, and Shania, six, of The Ridge, ran for help while their mum, who is trained in First Aid, tried to keep the boy conscious.

Their grandmother Lorraine Curtis told the Gazette: "My granddaughters are very timid and shy but they ran the quarter of a mile to the nearest house and asked the people there to call for an ambulance.

"Then they waited for the paramedic and showed him where to go.

"I am very proud of them. My daughter could not leave the young boy because he was in going in and out of consciousness so she had to rely on the girls."

Emergency care practitioner Kevin Gifford was first on the scene.

He said: "Where the lad had fallen was about 150 yards from the road in thick woodland, so it would have been difficult finding him.

"However, a group of children were waiting to show me where I had to go – one of the older ones had arranged for help to be called and then organised friends so they spotted me as soon as I got near the scene.

"I was able to go straight to the patient, so a huge thank-you to them. In my experience, that is typical of the best young people today."

The injured boy was taken to Frenchay Hospital where he was treated for bilateral colles fracture or broken wrists.