When Zac Howells was a toddler, he enjoyed sitting on his mother's knee in the front seat and pretending to drive their car.

But last Saturday the 12-year-old took control of mum Nicola Crump's vehicle for real – steering it to safety at 60mph and saving both of their lives after she passed out at the wheel.

Ms Crump, 37, was driving to a Christmas market with her youngest child when she began to feel ill – and told him she was about to pass out.

She fainted before she could wheel the car to safety and switch it off – so the hero schoolboy calmly leaned across and steered it onto a grassy central reservation to slow it down against the barrier, before dialling 999.

Ms Crump said Zac only agreed to accompany her on the 110-mile journey from Ebbw Vale, South Wales, to Wellesbourne Airfield in Warwickshire, when her friend cancelled on her the day before.

She said: 'We left the house at 5.30am and everything was fine. We didn't have breakfast because we were planning on getting a McDonald's on the way.'

But less than half way into the journey, as they approached Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, Ms Crump began to feel 'really hot'.

The support worker added: 'I wound my window down and managed to take my coat off. I could feel myself going, I was in buckets of sweat. I said to Zac: 'I'm going, I don't feel well.'

Zac Howells had only accompanied mother Nicola Crump on the trip after her friend dropped out at the last minute

Ms Crump said Zac was 'so calm' during the alarming incident

At the time, Ms Crump was driving in the left lane of the A40 dual carriageway and managed to pull off to the side of the road and put her hazard lights on.

But she said: 'There was no proper hard shoulder, just a small verge – so more than half of my car remained in the live lane.

'The last thing I remember is a lorry going past. Then I fainted before I had managed to put the car into park mode.'

As she lost consciousness, her foot pressed on the accelerator and the MG HS accelerated to around 60mph (97 km/h) along the dual carriageway.

'There was nothing to stop it from accelerating', Ms Crump, who also has a daughter, Michaela, 18, added. 'The next thing I could remember is coming around and seeing we were on the central reservation.

'We had been on the left of the road and now we were on the right-hand-side of the road by the barrier'.

'I was asking Zac: 'Have we crashed?

Zac said we had - he was saying: 'you're alright.' Then I could see the blue flashing lights coming towards us.

'The central reservation was about the width of the car so cars weren't having to swerve around us.

Zac is my hero, he saved both our lives. But he's very modest about it and doesn't know what all the fuss is about.'