A GREENOCK bingo player told today how she feels like she’s hit the jackpot — after staff helped save her life.

Maria Carmichael was struck down by a heart attack just as it was time for ‘eyes down’ at the town’s busy Mecca hall on Container Way.

First aider Lynn Boyle immediately rushed to help the stricken mum-of-one as stunned players witnessed the emergency unfolding.

Maria, 53, told the Telegraph: “When it started I thought I just needed to pass wind but then my arm and my face went all funny and I thought I was having a stroke.

“I was suddenly so drenched in sweat that you would think I’d just done an ice bucket challenge.

“The pain in my chest and my back was so acute and intense I really thought I was about to die.

“Lynn and the other staff at the bingo hall are worth their weight in gold.

“If it wasn’t for them and the paramedics, God knows what would have happened to me.

“I usually take most things in my stride but I really got an awful fright.” Maria was enjoying a girls’ night out with three of her pals when she suffered her seizure.

Mecca worker Lynn got her into a comfortable position and immediately dialled 999.

Maria — who had to spend six days in Inverclyde Royal Hospital — said today: “Everyone was utterly amazing.

“The medics and the nursing staff reacted so professionally and somehow took the fear away from me.

“I realised that I was in great hands and that I was going to be OK.” Maria told how she smoked up to 40 cigarettes-a-day before her serious health scare.

And she revealed that her cholestorol was at a dangerous level of nine when it should have been at five, or less.

Maria said: “I’m now on vapour electronic cigarettes — apple and watermelon flavour — which are much better for me.

“There’s no way I’ll smoke tobacco again and hopefully I won’t be using the vapour ones for much longer either.” She added: “The nurses have told me that my treadmill and echo sound test results have been great.

“I’ve been out and about walking too because I thought to myself, ‘I’m not sitting down to this’.” First aider Lynn told the Telegraph: “I was called over and saw that Maria wasn’t at all well. I asked her a few questions about her pain and where it was and I realised that she was probably having a heart attack.

“It was just a matter of getting her into a comfortable position, keeping her calm and immediately calling for an ambulance.

“I’m just glad that I was able to help.” Lynn revealed that Maria was not her first heart attack patient.

She said: “There’s been a couple, and someone has had a stroke when I was on duty.

“Things seem to happen when I’m there but I’ve had no-one dying on me.

“Just the other day there was a woman stung by a wasp and I had to help her out as well.

“I’m just thankful that Maria got to the hospital and that she is on the mend.” Maria — who suffered her heart attack last month — had become a regular visitor to Greenock to play bingo.

The Dunoon mum said: “I took my heart attack on the Sunday and I was out of hospital the following Friday — then I was back at the bingo that weekend to give Lynn a bouquet of flowers and a wee present.

“I’m so happy to be alive.”