A MUM who unexpectedly lost consciousness on a South Lakes fell has praised the 'brilliant' mountain rescue team that came to her aid.

Trish Holladay had walked to Potters Tarn after lunch with her two sons on a hot May bank holiday weekend, two years ago.

"We took a quick dip in the tarn and then we were just pottering around," the 44-year-old recalled. "And then I felt really unwell so I sat down and then I lost consciousness."

She said that the children had been talking about phoning mountain rescue when she said she had been feeling unwell but she had been reluctant.

"I thought I just had too much sun," Ms Holladay, who lives in Burneside, said. "And also I knew quite a lot the team!"

Fortunately, when she lost consciousness her eldest son Jake took it upon himself to call Kendal Mountain Rescue Team as well as putting her in the recovery position and attempting to keep her warm.

"It took them an hour to arrive and when you think they have to come from homes to base and then base to the location and then get to me, it's phenomenal," she said. "But when you are unconscious on a fell side it's a blooming long time!"

When the team got to her she was hypothermic. They wrapped her up in a bivi tent and she was then helicoptered to Royal Lancaster Infirmary where she began to improve.

"I had awful awful tummy ache just before I collapsed so they thought it was food poisoning but I rang the cafe we had eaten at and it became apparent it was not," she said, explaining that blood work revealed that she had an anaphylactic reaction.

Two years later, she still does not know what caused the reaction but doctors believe it could have been something organic on the fell.

"Mountain rescue were amazing," Ms Holladay said. "I have never been so happy to see anybody.

"A lot of what they deal with is injuries or cardiac arrests but you can just be taken unwell on the fell and that was what happened to me and I was just so glad that they were there."

She said that they were also fantastic with her children, Jake who was 12 at the time and Sam who was 9. Sam was particularly pleased to have been given the job of holding the flare to land the helicopter.

"I never thought I would need them," she said. "Because if I ever do anything that's a long way I always go very prepared and to me that walk is a quick afternoon jaunt.

"We were not far from home. We do that walk regularly, we often swim, it was warm."

Trish, a nurse at Westmorland General Hospital, said that the medical care provided by the volunteers was also exemplary.

"They are not medical people," she said. "A lot of them are just normal folk who have done that training and then have to recall it under pressure.

"They were all without exception absolutely brilliant."

If you have been helped by Kendal Mountain Rescue Team and would like to share your story, please contact Sara Royle on 01539 790260 or email sara.royle@nqnw.co.uk