Charley found me collapsed

WHEN Susan Marsh-Armstrong, 51, fell unconscious, her cat Charley got help. Susan lives with her husband Kevin, 51, a bus driver. SINCE I was 12, I’ve had type 1 diabetes. It means injecting with insulin twice a day and checking my blood sugar after dinner at night. When it drops too low, I become incoherent, start sweating, feel dizzy and get tunnel vision. It’s scary, but usually I have a biscuit and the moment passes.

But just before Christmas 2011, I’d had a busy day out shopping. We’d had a sandwich for lunch and at home I just had a salad for dinner. My mind was so full of Christmas planning I forgot to test my blood sugar.

I fell into bed exhausted and Charley my cat came up to say goodnight. She’s 13 now, but when I got her she was so tiny I had to teach her how to eat.

My husband Kevin tells me that during that night he woke to find Charley tapping him on his face with her paw, which she’d never done before. He tried to shoo her away, but she persisted. Then he noticed that I wasn’t in bed. Charley ran to the bathroom, back and forth, trying to guide him until he got the message.

Kevin found me on the bathroom floor. He checked my blood sugar — it should have been between five and eight, but it was just above zero. I was in a diabetic coma. He gave me a glucagon injection to raise my blood glucose l evels and made me a sweet coffee.

If Charley hadn’t woken Kevin and I’d remained on the floor with my blood sugar sinki ng f or l onger, I may have been brain damaged or dead. She saved my life.