When mum of two Julie Hodges collapsed on her doorstep, screaming in agony and slipping in and out of consciousness, she thought she was about to die.

But thanks to the quick-thinking of her daughter Tillie, her goodbyes to family and friends that day were not her last.

Miss Hodges was returning home from a shopping trip to Bicester, when she felt that her head had suddenly “erupted”.

She explained: “I was carrying three bags of shopping and had reached outside my house when something in my head popped.

“They call it a ‘thunderclap’ and that’s the only way to describe it.

“I told Tillie that my head hurt and then I can’t remember much else except asking her if my eyes were bleeding. Then I just told her ‘You need to get Mummy help’.”

Tillie, now a Year Eight pupil at Bicester Community College, got her mum to a sofa, rang 999 and then phoned numerous relatives.

According to the now 12-year-old, her mum was screaming in agony and then fell unconscious.

Tillie remembered: “It was so scary, I didn’t know what was happening. “But I knew the number I had to ring and so that’s what I did.”

However when the ambulance hadn’t arrived 20 minutes later, she calmly got back on the phone to ring the emergency services a second time.

Her proud mum said: “It must have been terrifying, just awful.

“Without a doubt, she saved my life. If she hadn’t been there, I would have just slumped in the doorway. Who knows what would have happened.”

Miss Hodges, 37, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and diagnosed with a subarachnoid haemorrhage – bleeding in the brain - a condition which effects one in 7,000 people.

About half of all cases are fatal and around 15 per cent of casualties die before they reach hospital.

She spent three weeks in hospital and underwent an operation during which tiny platinum coils were inserted into her brain to block off faulty blood vessels.

She said: “Doctors said I was just unlucky, they don’t know why I had the haemorrhage. But then again, I’m lucky because I’m still alive and I’m not paralysed.”

And the thankful mum from Hudson Street, Bicester, added: “I couldn’t have got through the past few months without Josie or Tillie – they are my little nurses and they help me so much.”

Though she now suffers from depression, she said: “When I’m having a bad day, Josie makes the dinner and does the housework.

“They both know all the medications I need and I couldn’t be without them.”

Just before Christmas, doctors discovered she has another aneurysm and may have to undergo further surgery.

South Central Ambulance spokesman Gill Hodgetts said there had been heavy traffic that day, which is why the ambulance took 22 minutes to arrive.

Miss Hodges' best friend Rachel Kavanagh and other friends raised more than £2,600 for the John Radcliffe with a charity disco in November.

They want to thank to everyone who donated or showed their support.