Hero saves man’s life after he fell into canal
A MAN saved a stranger’s life in Birmingham’s Gas Street Basin after he fell into the canal and almost drowned.
Craig Morris, who was loading up a canalboat, saw a passer-by collapse into the water on December 11.
Mr Morris, aged 32, from Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, said: “I just heard someone go in and then saw their head popping in and out of the water. I shouted
‘are you alright?’. The next thing I know I was in.
“I was fully dressed, wearing a big pair boots, a woolly jumper, my phone was in my pocket and my watch was still on. I guess my instinct just kicked in. The water was so cold it was like a punch to the chest.
“I tried to put my feet down on the bottom but it was too deep.
“I managed to drag him to the side and started undressing him out of the wet clothes. He was in shock and couldn’t tell me his name.”
The man who fell in, who did not wish to give his name, said: “Craig is my guardian angel.
“I’ve not told him this, but I died in the water. This peace came over me. I was two or three feet under. I’d gone, I’d stopped fighting. I was wearing a body warmer, big leather boots, I’d stopped fighting. There was this calmness about me.
“I could see people. It was like an out-of-body experience. Then I saw this light and Craig pulling me out.”
“I just slipped on the cobbles as I came off Gas Street down the ramp and the momentum took me in,” he said.
“You hear stories about people missing a bus or a plane then something happening, it’s a crazy thing. My time wasn’t up. There’s no ifs and no buts about it, I was dead.”
“I want to have a chance to tell Craig face-to-face what he has done for me and what I went through,” added the man.
“I owe my life to him. You start thinking about what would’ve happened. Kids losing their dad, grandchildren losing their granddad. I could’ve died, I don’t know who he was, or where he comes from, but Craig saved my life. I am not a religious man but I heard the other day the saying ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. You never know who what is around the corner and who will be there for you.”