When Norsewood's Lyn McConchie was taken into hospital suddenly on the morning of Saturday, October 21 she didn't have time to let her Canadian friend know what had happened.
"Sharman Horwood and I keep in touch regularly through emails and phone calls, so when Sharman began phoning and phoning and then phoning a friend, who didn't answer either, she began to panic," Lyn said.
"She had a mental picture of me lying on the floor decomposing."
After days of being unable to make contact with her Norsewood friend and fellow writer, Sharman was desperate and phoned the New Zealand Police.
"She struck a wonderful lady who agreed something could be done to try and track me down," Lyn said.
Sharman has visited Lyn in Norsewood for the past 30 years and when asked which hospital, if any, her friend could have been taken to, she said Dannevirke or Palmerston North.
"The woman on the end of the phone, went and made a phone call and came back to tell Sharman I was in Palmerston North Hospital and gave her the phone number," Lyn said.
"Sharman thinks our New Zealand Police are wonderful and although she rang the hospital immediately on Tuesday morning, I'd been discharged just 10 minutes earlier.
"I'm deeply grateful to our police. I could have been lying on my floor horribly injured.
"Thankfully I wasn't, but like Sharman, I think our police are brilliant."
Lyn wanted to personally thank the person who took Sharman's phone call, but hadn't been able to track her down.