A hero husband saved his wife's life by performing CPR techniques he remembered from watching TV - after she "died" in the passenger seat of their car.

Paul Cutler, 64, was driving to his home in Kent from the Wirral when he looked over and saw partner, Suzanne, 57, was "lifeless."

In a panic, the retired salesman made an emergency stop on the hard shoulder of the M56 near Manchester and pulled her out of the car to perform CPR.

Cutler, a councillor at Dartford Borough Council, says he has had no resuscitation training - so he did what he had seen on television.

He did this for around five minutes before an ambulance helicopter found them - partly due to Suzanne’s bright orange dress, which passers-by used to pinpoint their location.

Paramedics managed to use a defibrillator to resuscitate the mom after three attempts, before rushing her to nearby Wythenshawe Hospital on November 24.

Paul, a former mayor of Dartford, says he was later told that his CPR efforts kept the oxygen pumping to Suzanne's brain and organs - saving her life.

He said: “We were driving along merrily and I suddenly looked and I just saw Suzanne basically lifeless. I could see she was dead. My whole world just caved in.

“I shouted to my daughter that something was wrong and she started shaking her, her head flopped down and her lips turned blue.

“I made a very quick decision to pull over on the hard shoulder. I literally manhandled her and launched her out of the chair and dragged her onto the grass verge.

“One of the things I really remember is the desperation of being on our own on the side of the motorway with the cars and trunks thundering by and nobody coming.