Holly Branson saves Virgin passenger

Passengers aboard Virgin flights to and from Antigua are quite used to having the airline's owner, Sir Richard Branson, leaping up and down for some publicity stunt or other. But when his daughter Holly Branson left her seat on Saturday it was not a PR gimmick but a matter of life and death.

About an hour into the flight from Gatwick, Paul Norbury, who was travelling with his wife and young daughter, began to have seizures. Anxious cabin crew used the tannoy to ask if there were a doctor on the flight, and were surprised when Holly emerged from first class to ask: "Can I help?"

Holly, who qualified as a doctor last year, checked Norbury's vital signs and gave him oxygen, as he slipped in and out of consciousness at 35,000 ft. According to a Virgin spokesman, Holly then took the decision to order the 747 to land at Ireland's Shannon airport.

Doctors later confirmed that Norbury had had a heart attack. There was history of heart trouble in his family, and he probably wouldn't have survived without specialist treatment. Branson commented: "I'm incredibly proud of Holly."

She was on the Antigua-bound flight as the first step to Necker, Branson's private island, where she is to spend Christmas. ·