Five-year-old Fireman Sam fanatic Jayden Darlington sprang into action when a woman fell more than 25ft into a mud bank.

He rushed in from his grandad's balcony to shout: "Dial 999 – if you don't, I will!"

Jayden was playing with his new coastguard Lego kit in Baltic Wharf, Gravesend, when a woman screamed up to him to get help.

A 45-year-old woman had just fallen off a wall on to the River Thames mud - sparking a frantic race against the tide by police, specialist firefighters, lifeboat and coastguard crews, paramedics and Kent Air Ambulance doctors.

"He was so clear and mature. We're very proud of him..." - grandmother Charlotte Darlington

Jayden, who toured a fire station for his fifth birthday and whose uncle is a firefighter, said: "A man was waving and shouting at the boats and a lady ran up to me and said 'dial 999'.

"I'd learned what 999 was in school so I ran inside and told my grandpa.

"The fire brigade came first, then the police, then the ambulance."

Grandpa Colin, 57, made the call while Jayden and grandmother Charlotte, also 57, looked on.

Mrs Darlington said: "I was so pleased with the way he acted. He was so clear and mature. We're very proud of him."

The woman, thought to be from the Gravesend area, was found beneath an access ladder with injuries to her pelvis, chest and shoulder, a broken leg and broken ribs at 6.40pm on Saturday.

She was in a stable condition earlier this week at King's College Hospital, London.

Jason Carroll, helmsman for the Gravesend RNLI lifeboat, said: "When we arrived we saw a woman face-down.

"She looked lifeless and we thought she had suffered fatal injuries at that point.

"It wasn't until we got closer to the firefighters treating her that we realised she was alive and had regained consciousness.

"A firefighter had managed to clear her airway and got the mud out from around her mouth."

Crews raced to get the woman out, on to the lifeboat and to the nearby Royal Terrace Pier before the tide came in.

Mr Carroll said: "We probably had an hour or an hour and a half. We put two of my crew ashore to work through the mud and rolled her on to a longboard, which is used for spinal injuries."

Gravesend RNLI station manager Ian Dunkley said the woman was lucky not to be more seriously injured.

Witness Malgorzata Medlewska said: "All you could hear was the woman screaming and crying when she got put on the boat."

Danny Turner, watch manager at Thames-side fire station, said: "It was a particularly delicate operation because the woman was in a lot of pain and the tide was coming in.

"It was a good example of emergency crews working together, especially as time was of the essence."

How the woman was rescued after falling from a wall. Video: RNLI