A FIRST aider brought a man back to life after taking a life-saving course only three months ago.

Michelle Regan, 45, is calling for lessons in resusciation to be taught as standard in schools after performing the life-saving procedure after a horrific bicycle accident.

A man in his mid-twenties was air-lifted to hospital after falling off his bike and hitting his head in the Laindon Centre on Monday morning.

The fall knocked him unconscious and he had to be brought back to life twice more as paramedics tried to save him.

Ms Regan, of Bushy Mead, Laindon, said: “I came up the walkway into the Laindon Centre to post a letter just after it happened and saw a crowd of people.

“The man’s eyes were dilated and there was no sign of life.”

Ms Regan performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for 15 minutes until paramedics came with a defibrillator.

She added: “I am praying so much for him. I don’t want attention on me. I don’t want a medal. I was lucky enough to know what to do. I just urge people to learn CPR.”

She decided to go on the course after her sister Carolyn died aged 11 because no one near her knew CPR.

Ms Regan said: “After helping the cyclist I was sobbing like a baby. The shop workers were fantastic to me and looked after me so I thank them for that.

“It took me back to my sister and lots of different things.

“I just worried if I had done the right thing.

“My sister was in my head and heart, but all those things are the reason why I did what I did and that’s why I ask people to learn CPR.

“I lost my sister because no one there knewCPR, and it was too late for her.

“You have a golden hour when things need to be done.

“I plead with people if there’s an opportunity to learn basic first aid do it. It can be make or break for someone.

“It’s just a case of knowing where to place your hands and pressing to the beat of Staying Alive.

“If they learn that it will make such a huge difference.”

Essex Police said yesterday the incident had been passed to the Serious Collision Investigation Unit, because of the nature of the accident.

They said the man was still in a critical, but stable condition at the Royal London Hospital.