A WOMAN who risked her life to save another in an Egyptian underwater rescue, will be honoured by the Prime Minister next month.

Jane McAlister, who had to spend two days in a decompression chamber after she risked death to save a fellow diver while on holiday, will be personally congratulated by Tony Blair on Thursday, November 2.

She has already been crowned a National Life Saver in the annual Vodafone Life Savers Awards, and will also attend a glittering ceremony at London's Caf Royal the day before meeting Mr Blair.

The awards, now in their fifth year, are designed to honour unsung heroes behind some of Britain's most remarkable lifesaving rescues.

Mrs McAlister, 43, from East Stratton, near Micheldever, was diving in Ras Mohamed National Park in Egypt on June 15 this year, when she found herself caught up in a life or death drama.

An experienced scuba diver and instructor, she was with a small group of divers and another instructor, who signalled to the group to follow a large shoal of barracuda. This meant the group had to inflate their buoyancy devices, but one of the women in the group did the reverse and "dropped like a stone", according to Mrs McAlister, a business development manager.

The water was 900 metres deep, and there was nothing to stop the diver's descent to a certain death.

Although she was well aware of the danger of breathing air at great depths, the experienced diver immediately swam down after the woman, who, having reached a depth of more than 150 feet, was in serious trouble by now.

Mrs McAlister said: "I think it was instinct.

"I watched for what felt like minutes but it was clearly seconds. I thought there's no way she's going to work out what to do.

"I was thinking what was I going to find when I got down there, and I was worrying she'd be panicked."

Catching up with the stricken diver, Mrs McAlister grabbed her and managed to inflate her buoyancy control device.

The woman had dropped some of her weights and they began an emergency ascent.

They completed a controlled ascent to 22 meters, where Mrs McAlister handed the woman to another instructor and stayed there to decompress.

When they reached the surface they were helped on to the dive boat.

By then Mrs McAlister was suffering from the bends in her right hand and arm, which then spread to her shoulder and face. Fortunately, due to her quick reactions, the other diver did not suffer any ill-effects at all.

Mrs McAlister had to spend two days in and out of a decompression chamber and needed further treatment when she returned to the UK, but is fortunately recovering well from her ordeal.

Her husband of seven years, Anthony, was with her when the drama unfolded.

She added: "I was honoured to get the award but I'm deeply embarrassed about the whole thing."

She said it was her three stepchildren who had spurred her on to accept it.

She has kept in touch with the woman whose life she saved, who it turned out, lives in Hampshire.

A spokesman for Vodafone, which runs the awards, said: "In acting without hesitation to save the woman's life, Jane compromised her own safety.

"Her actions upheld the tradition of divers world-wide to help a fellow diver in distress, but she pushed those traditions well beyond the normally accepted limits."