Pauline Gardiner-McKeith (44) suffered a heart attack while having breakfast with her mother, Nan, at her home in Old Steading Road.

Yesterday, her heartbroken mother wept as she told how her daughter had been dedicated to helping others.

"First and foremost she was my companion, my friend," she said. "My life is going to be empty without her.

"Initially, Pauline wanted to be a doctor, but unfortunately we could not afford to send her to university. So she chose to become a paramedic and rose to become the top paramedic in the Highlands. I have been so proud of her."

Mrs Gardiner-McKeith described how she saw her daughter shivering in the kitchen on the morning she died.

"I asked Pauline, 'are you cold? I will get you a dressing gown'," she recalled.

"I had been in hospital with pneumonia throughout April and Pauline had cared for me when I got home. She was beside me day and night.

"I said to her, 'I think you have my pneumonia'. But then her heart just stopped."

She called 999 and paramedics found their colleague had suffered a heart attack.

"Her colleagues said they would not give up, that they couldn't," she explained. "They said to me, 'this is our friend, this is our leader. We have to try'.

"They got her heartbeat back and flew her up to Raigmore Hospital, but they pronounced her dead later on that day.

"As far as I am concerned, though, she died in the kitchen with me."

Miss Gardiner-Keith's other love in life was animals, and she owned three dogs, a black poodle called Megan, a westie called Robbie, and an apricot poodle called Milo.

She died just a week before her 45th birthday and hundreds attended her funeral service this week at Inverness Crematorium where donations were made to the British Heart Foundation and Pet Rescue UK.

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