A NATIONAL motoring organisation was this week slammed a disgrace, after a West Devon woman and her children were left stranded in the dark on an isolated country road. The TV advert claims 'You've got AA friend' but for Trisha Milne that friend was nowhere to be seen as she and her children were left waiting two hours for help. Trisha, who had been at Derriford Hospital with her six-year-old daughter, broke down on her way home to the Bere Peninsula at the end of last month when her car overheated. She could get no mobile signal in the densely wooded valley near Denham Bridge, so walked a quarter of a mile to the nearest house, itself well off the road, for help. Trisha said: 'It took me about 15 minutes just to get through to the call centre — I felt really awful because I was using these people's phone, but luckily they were really lovely. 'When I eventually got through to someone he just couldn't work out where we were. He asked me three or four times for the postcode —I think he must have asked the lady what her postcode was about ten times in total.' Trisha explained she was on her own with two young children and gave the AA clear directions on her location, from two different directions. She then walked back to the car with the children and waited . . . and waited. 'All these things were going through my mind. My son had been on a sailing course that day and was wet and cold. My daughter has been critically ill with meningitis — it's left her with a very low immune system, she's constantly in and out of hospital and my priority was keeping her warm. 'My husband was away — and I was worried about walking back to the house again in the dark, in case we couldn't be seen by cars. I couldn't use the car lights because we were off the side of the road and it seemed to confuse other cars. 'After about two hours this poor chap came back down the road with his torch and said the AA had phoned to say they couldn't send anyone out in the near future. 'I felt so let down — it was a complete joke.' Trisha said the householder walked all the way back to the house for a watering can, came back with water and filled up the car radiator. She managed to struggle home, with the engine overheating. She said she was hugely grateful to the people who helped her. 'They were absolute poppets, they couldn't do enough, they even brought biscuits and crisps out for the children. I don't know what I would have done without them.' Trisha said that by bizarre coincidence, a friend had broken down in the same area the previous day — and waited four-and-a-half hours for an AA rescue van. Her father, Brian Lamb, had been looking after Trisha's nine-year-old daughter with his wife and waiting anxiously for her to come and pick her up. He said: 'I am absolutely appalled at the sheer lack of concern shown for a woman and her family on a lonely road. 'This is a woman who has been left on her own with two children, one of whom had been to hospital that afternoon, in the dark, in a car with no heating, in a totally isolated spot. 'The AA seems only to exist for the benefit of its shareholders — certainly not its members.' Mr Lamb, who lives at Bere Ferrers, said his daughter was already upset following the hospital visit, but the incident had left her feeling 'quite traumatised'. The 'Good Samaritan' who helped Trisha was former Tavistock Primary School headteacher Tony Waites, who said he thought the attitude of the AA was 'disgusting'. 'It's very lonely down there, it's the back of beyond. Mum was very calm and very sensible — I think I would have lost my temper,' he said. 'It made me so cross; you pay a fee for the AA and this was ridiculous, they just couldn't understand where we were. 'If we hadn't been there, I don't know what she'd have done, she could have been there for hours.' A spokesman for the AA said: 'We have to hold up our hands — it could have been handled a lot better. 'The road where the car broke down is officially unnamed and this led to problems trying to pinpoint the exact location of the vehicle. 'Our systems do allow for this, though, and regrettably, the patrol failed to follow these instructions. 'Although the patrol did arrive on the scene (the job was not cancelled) to find that the car had gone, we fully accept that this was due to the unacceptable delay in despatching a patrol and our investigations have revealed further errors by individuals that are being addressed internally. 'We would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Milne and her family for the distress and inconvenience they suffered. We will be contacting them to address the matter.'