A MAN who battled to save his choking partner is calling for laws governing first aid in restaurants to be changed.

Helen Peploe died after choking on a piece of meat in an Indian restaurant in Farnworth.

There is no legal obligation for a restaurant to provide trained first-aiders for customers, although staff must be protected.

Neil Whitcher, aged 50, who said he was left “devastated” following 56-year-old Miss Peploe’s death, believes all restaurants should have a legal duty to provide first- aid for customers.

At the Bolton inquest assistant coroner Alison Mulch recorded a verdict of “accidental death” on Miss Peploe.

The couple had received the first course of a mixed starter when Miss Peploe started to choke on a piece of lamb chop.

Mr Whitcher tried desperately to save his partner, both at the table and on the first floor of the restaurant in the ladies toilet but she died three days later in the Royal Bolton Hospital.

“It seems ridiculous that the law doesn’t extend to paying customers,” said Mr Whitcher.

He said he wanted to see a law brought in to protect diners in restaurants, and added: “I think there should be a duty placed on restaurants to make first aid provision for the public.

“Helen died so ignobly.”

Restaurant manager Mr Mohammed Bhuiyan told the inquest organised first aid training had been provided for a member of staff in August this year, a month after Miss Peploe’s death.

Mr Whitcher, who had taken Miss Peploe to the Royal Balti House in Lower Market Street, Farnworth for an evening meal on Friday, July 5 of this year, was trained in first-aid and medical experts at the inquest told him he had done everything he could to try to save his partner.