The 999 operator who had to give her own father CPR: ‘Before, I was just guessing how a caller felt. Now I know’

Estelle Williams with her father, Eddie, on whom she performed CPR. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

I’m a 999 call supervisor at the London Ambulance Service and I’ve instructed more than a hundred people on how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) over the phone. But I’d never imagined in a million years that I’d end up using those skills on my own family.

I was asleep after a night shift when my mum started screaming for me. My dad, Eddie, had collapsed and wasn’t responsive. He was making these weird noises – like the air was being pushed out of his body. I’d never actually seen a cardiac arrest, but I knew instinctively that he was about to stop breathing.