A GREAT gran from Cowdenbeath who enjoyed an extra seven years after an 'angel' saved her life has passed away at the age of 89.

Nessie Stobbs suffered a cardiac arrest in the town centre in June 2014 and became best friends with the stranger, Elsa MacLean, who gave her CPR and kept her alive.

She also helped raise awareness, and won one a community champion awards, after backing the Dunfermline Press' Take Heart campaign calling for more public access defibrillators.

Her son John said: "She got another seven years from that and they were quite happy seven years.

"We call Elsa our 'angel' – she's listed in my phone as 'angel' – and they got on famously.

"They became really good friends and thought a lot of each other.

"Elsa would take her out for tea and dinner, she was at the awards with her too."

He added: "With the positive attitude she had and her outlook on life, mum was an inspiration to me.

"Towards the end she had a lot of illnesses and infections, her heart disease wasn't going the right way, but even the day before she died she was talking about getting back to her keep fit class.

"Never once did I hear her moan or groan. She was always bright, even latterly when she had dementia.

"It was a joy being in mum's company. She was always laughing and joking and spread love, humility and compassion wherever she went."

Elsa said: "I'm just so glad she passed away cosy and peacefully in her own bed rather than at a bus stop surrounded by strangers.

"I must admit when the ambulance took her away I didn't think she'd survive but she did, it obviously wasn't her time.

"If I hadn't missed the bus or hadn't crossed the road ... it was like it was meant, the way everything happened, and we became very good friends.

"There was nothing forced about it, it was so natural, we just laughed the whole time. What a character she was.

"Every year she used to say 'I've had another year', it's like she was totting it up, and she met great grandchildren she would never have met otherwise.

"I feel better for having known her."

She added: "She had a real zest for life. I used to tease her about her dancing, I told her 'You'll get a reputation dancing with all these men.'

"She loved flowers so I'd always take her some and we'd sit in her garden, Nessie would have her sunhat on, and we'd stuff ourselves with Stephen's cream cakes.

"I have so many lovely memories of her, the world will be a sadder place without her."

Nessie died in her sleep at her home on Lomond Crescent in Dunfermline on May 19.

Born and brought up in Cowdenbeath, she worked in a textiles factory in Dunfermline, was 'on the buses' as a clippie and also had jobs at the Phillips factory and Woolworths store in Dunfermline.

John said: "She was always with her sisters, they were known as the three sisters as they were always together, dancing at the British Legion and in shops and cafes, especially Giacomo's and Ali's Cave.

"She met my dad, Matthew, at the palais in Cowdenbeath when he was in the RAF.

"He was a TV engineer for the Co-op and a projectionist at cinemas in Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline."

The couple married and had two sons, John and Sandy. There are two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The family lived in Lochgelly, moved to Clonmel in Ireland for four years, to Tweed Street in Dunfermline and then Lomond Crescent, the family home for 40 years.

John said: "She loved gardening, dancing and swimming and they went away with their friends, they were very sociable.

"Both my parents had heart problems, mum had a triple heart bypass in 1998 but she was determined to get fit again and went swimming nearly every day."

Nessie's funeral was on June 8 at Kirkcaldy Crematorium.