Grateful dad Richard Cooper has thanked the air ambulance crews who rescued his daughter Lois after she fell more than 20 feet from a tree.

The eight-year-old was airlifted to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol by the air ambulance after she slipped and plunged from the tree while walking with her dad in Beckhampton.

Mr Cooper said they had been on their way home to Quemerford, in Calne, when Lois asked to climb one last tree. “I thought she had gone a bit high, so I climbed up to help her down,” he said.

“I looked down to see where I could put my foot, and I just saw this pink blur come past me.

“I tried to reach out and grab her but I didn’t get enough of her sleeve and she just riquoched off the branches to the bottom.

“I was looking down and she wasn’t moving or anything, so I immediately thought the worst.”

Mr Cooper tried to bring his unconscious daughter around before calling 999 for help, fearing she might have broken several bones.

“It felt like a minute or two before she came around, and then she kept saying ‘can you wake me up please?’,” he said. “Then she started screaming.”

Mr Cooper and his wife Julia drove to the hospital, while doctors tended to Lois in the helicopter. Amazingly, the Holy Trinity School pupil was not seriously injured in the accident, and chipped only a few front teeth.

Mr Cooper said: “It took us over an hour to get to the hospital, but by the time we arrived she was talking to the doctors and nurses and asking where we were.

“They said it was a miracle she had just chipped her teeth.”

With the drama over Mr Cooper, who has sent a letter of thanks to the air ambulance crew, returned to the scene to check just how far his daughter fell.

“I went back and climbed up there,” he said. “I think it was about 20ft, and I did have a bit of a panic attack.

“My wife clipped me around the head and asked why I let her climb that high, and I’m a bit greyer, but at least Lois is back to her usual cheeky self.

“We are so grateful to the air ambulance staff and all the doctors who helped us out – we cannot thank them enough.”

Lois is now back at school after a week of recovery at home.