From time to time our merry procession of bicycles was stopped for refreshment; the day was exceptionally sultry. The heat was pouring down from the sky onto the scorching meadows and, of course, onto the cyclists. What I will really remember about that day is the fear I felt at the moment my baby was leaving. But from the beginning.

Five kilometres from the finish line, a tragedy occurred. Justyna failed to negotiate a very high kerb on the way to the footpath (by the way, who puts such pyramids on a country road?!) and fell like a stone, shaking her knee and hands badly.

I immediately set about bandaging the purple bloodied joint (I had carefully packed the bandaging kit into my pannier this morning, along with a substantial supply of water). When the situation seemed to be under control, and the pink knee peered shyly at me from under the gleaming white of the sterile gauze, Justyna began to choke. The rush of air being struggled into her lungs was like an inner tube from which, slowly but inevitably, all the air would escape and the wheel of life would come to a standstill.

At this point, at the end of the world, I could not count on any help. Calling an ambulance a few miles from the Belarusian border, somewhere on the edge of the wilderness, was out of the question. Instinctively, I stimulated the four Japanese anti-shock points on my daughter's back before she slumped to the ground and I lost contact with her. (By the way, at that moment I was proud of myself for having insisted on her wearing a helmet before I left :-). Cuba, true to form, took his sister's sunglasses off her nose and bravely informed me that she had one eye open and was therefore fine!

The moment you see her fade away, your whole world is gone, everything loses its meaning. But time is running out and only your quick reaction can save the life of a loved one. By the time I had put the phone down after calling my friends, the 'Tambyls', for help in checking vital functions, respiratory and circulatory capacity, Justyna had sat up. The Tsubo points worked in an instant.

That experience, and the experiences of others who have had the unpleasant experience of having to use tsubo points to save someone's health or life, convinced me that everyone, especially parents, should learn them so that they can give effective first aid.

I would like to invite you to a one-day course on activating Tsubo Shock Points on babies, children and adults; for parents, rescuers, instructors, doctors, nurses, teachers, shop, office, bank employees, carers, etc., for everyone. Because any of us could find ourselves in a situation where we need to save someone's life. It pays to know how.