A grateful mum has thanked a quick-thinking stranger who saved her teenage daughter’s life.

Shannon Clifton was walking along Redwongs Way, to St Peter’s School, on Thursday morning, when she began to choke on a gobstopper.

Shannon told The Hunts Post: “It just got stuck, I’m not sure how and then I began to cough.”

Friends, Madison Humphrey and Sasha O’Hara, desperately tried to dislodge the sweet by hitting the 13-year-old on the back.

When that failed, they both started to fear the worst until a passing stranger came to their aid.

Madison, 12, said: “We had just bought the sweets from the shop when Shannon started coughing. We both thought she was going to be sick but then she started turning white.”

It was then that Eddie Woodfine, a refuse worker at Huntingdonshire District Council, jumped from his truck after seeing the girls struggle.

Mr Woodfine began to hit Shannon on the back, but after realising that wasn’t working he performed abdominal thrusts on the teenager which dislodged the sweet.

Sasha, 12, said: “It was so scary and it all happened to quickly we couldn’t believe that he had stopped to help us.”

After hearing about the drama, Shannon’s mum, Tracey Manyweathers, took to social media to find out who the kind stranger was.

Ms Manyweathers, who lives in Green Tiles Close, Sapley, told The Hunts Post: “I am just so grateful that Eddie was there at the time. I honestly don’t think Shannon would be alive if he hadn’t stopped to help.

“Eddie was just so amazing – he saved my little girl.”

With the help of the Facebook community Ms Manyweathers managed to contact Mr Woodfine to thank him for his quick-thinking.

“He was just such a humble man and didn’t think anything of helping Shannon and her friends.

“The outcome could have been so much worse if her friends weren’t there and then Eddie hadn’t turned up.”

Following the incident Shannon did not need any medical treatment.