THE friend of a woman who choked to death on ham has spoken about the moment she tried to save her life.

Anna-Marie Ballard said the ordeal had made her so ill she gave up her job as a cashier at Shipleys Amusement Centre in Worcester’s Angel Street.

Her friend and work colleague Karen Challis choked on three or four pieces of wafer-thin ham while making sandwiches for customers, an inquest in Stourport-on-Severn was told yesterday.

Mrs Ballard said staff shortages, due to boss James Shipley and another worker having to attend different doctors’ appointments, meant it was just her and Miss Challis working on the morning of Wednesday, July 22.

It was about 11.30am when Miss Challis, aged 42, of Wichenford, near Worcester, decided to make sandwiches leaving Mrs Ballard alone on the shop floor.

“The office phone rang, I went to go and answer the phone and Karen grabbed my arm,” said Mrs Ballard. “She was pointing at her mouth. I could see she was choking on something. I tried to assist her by hitting her on the back and tried to interlock my hands under her rib cage to lift her to see if I could force it out that way. I couldn’t lift her because she was quite a big lady.

“Because she was choking she was now having a job breathing and collapsed onto her knees.”

A customer who happened to be a retired nurse then tried to help while Mrs Ballard rang the emergency services.

Paramedics arrived within minutes and took Miss Challis – a former pupil at Chantry High School in Martley – to Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s accident and emergency department.

Worcestershire coroner Geraint Williams said Dr Gildeh tried to resucitate Miss Challis on arrival and arranged for a number of tests to be carried out, including a CT scan.

Mr Williams said: “That showed the brain had been starved of oxygen and that had caused severe damage.” Mr Williams said Miss Challis then had a fit in hospital due to her brain injuries and doctors and nurses realised she was not going to survive.

She died in the early hours of Saturday, July 25.

Mr Williams said Miss Challis’s heart and breathing had stopped when she was choking. No post-mortem tests were carried out and he recorded a verdict of accidental death.

While giving evidence, Mrs Ballard, of Holly Mount Road, Tolladine, Worcester, paid tribute to Miss Challis. She said: “She was lovely. She was the sort of lady where it didn’t matter what you asked her to do, no job was too big or too small. She was a real angel.”

Miss Challis’s family did not attend the inquest, but her mother, Beryl, previously told your Worcester News her daughter was “quiet but always happy and cheerful”.