THE son of a woman left lying on the pavement for two hours after a fall has thanked kind passersby.

Seventy-five-year-old Kathy Keates fell outside Just to Say card shop in Prudhoe. Her son, Liam, believes there was a bit of pavement sticking up which caused her to fall.

Kathy waited on the ground for around two hours for an ambulance.

"There were a few people who came to help - including the girls from the card shop and Happy Faces charity", said Liam. "Thank you so much (to them) for being there for her and making her as comfortable as possible.

"It turned out she had broken her hip. It must have been horrible for her."

Kathy had an operation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle to put a metal plate and pins in her hip.

Liam added: "I totally understand the ambulance service is stretched a lot of the time and I don't blame them at all for the delay.

"I'm more concerned that where my mam fell, someone else had allegedly fallen weeks prior to this and nothing seemed to have been done to fix the issue."

Strategic head of operations at the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), Claire Jobling, said: “We are sorry for the delay that the patient experienced while outside.

"At the time of the call, we were experiencing high demand in the region.

"We encourage the patient and her family to contact us so we can review and feedback to them directly.”

A spokeswoman for Northumberland County Council said: "We take the safety of our residents and visitors very seriously and respond to all correspondence and complaints raised. 

"We do inspect pavements in busy town centre areas on a monthly basis and this one in Prudhoe was checked on March 29.

“Following the reports of the fall, our highways inspector went back out to look at the pavement in question and also looked at CCTV footage of where the fall took place. 

“While we have the greatest sympathy for the lady in question and hope she makes a full recovery, the pavement has been inspected and is not dangerous or defective.”