River rescue

Our people have been dubbed the ‘fourth emergency service’ during the pandemic, writes Zoe Walker.

And that was certainly true when Bishop Stortford delivery office manager, Sam Cordini, and North Essex operations manager, Dan Lawrence, pulled an elderly woman from the River Stort last month.

‘I was outside on a work-related phone call when I heard a couple of “helps”,’ said Sam. ‘Just across from the unit is a canal and over the other side, I saw two elderly ladies. One of them was calling for help and her friend was up to her waist in the water, caught up in all the reeds. She couldn’t get out as it was so wet and muddy and slippery.’

Without hesitation, Sam ran into the unit and enlisted the help of his colleague, Dan Lawrence.

‘We both ran down to the road, across the bridge and then back down to the other side and managed to get hold of her and pull her out,’ said Sam. ‘It’s not part of your normal working day, that’s for sure, but we just instinctively reacted to seeing somebody like that.’

The rescue took place during lockdown. 

‘The ladies had been cooped up for quite some time – and I guess they felt the need to come out and get some exercise and do a walk,’ said Sam.

‘The reason for myself being on site that day is that the unit had recently suffered a significant loss of staff due to Covid-19 test and trace,’ added Dan. ‘We lost several colleagues out of the unit and had to pull in an emergency operation just to keep it running.

‘Obviously, when we saw the lady had fallen into the river, we couldn’t just stand still and leave her there.

‘Instinct dropped in and Sam and I just did it in our stride really. I dare guess if she was further in the river, we would have had to have jumped in to swim after her – it’s just one of those instinctive reactions, I guess.’