REUNITED AFTER SAVING MY LIFE
One-armed vicar hero of boat propeller horror
A GRANDFATHER whose life was saved by a vicar during a narrowboat accident has told how he cried when they were reunited.
The Rev Dan Cant, who lost his right arm after a car crash in 2005, was having a barbecue when he heard James Christie scream as he was hit by a propeller after falling off a narrowboat.
He was about to be ripped apart by the propeller blades when Dan, who had been on a boat behind, managed to get on James’s vessel and kill the engine.
James, 61, spent 10 weeks in hospital after the accident in 2020 but never met his rescuer again until they were reunited for an episode of The Woodland Workshop – in emotional scenes to be screened tonight on Quest.
Grandad James, a former HGV driver from Rushden, Northants, presents the priest with a gift on the show.
He says: “I just cried when I saw him. I told him I loved him. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
James was on a narrowboat holiday near Coventry in August 2020 with his wife Clare when the propeller jammed and the boat stopped.
He says: “I went to have a look and couldn’t hold my balance and fell in. I was in the water, I could see the propeller coming towards me but I couldn’t get away from it.
“It hit me and that’s when Dan heard me scream. He jumped off his boat and managed to turn everything off.
“I thought I was going to die. I lost the right cheek of my backside, my coccyx was fractured. It smashed my left leg.
My insides were out.
“The propeller nearly went right through me.
Clare is still traumatised, she won’t go near a boat again.”
Dan, 46, of Colchester,
Essex, had been on a rental boat with his wife Leanne, a special needs teacher, and their three children.
He jumped into action when he saw James fall into the water. He recalls: “I heard him screaming. I could see the canal water turning from a brown colour to a red.
“We got on to the boat. My eldest son Jacob, who was 14, killed the engine and helped steer the boat to the bank. I went down and dragged James to the side. It was a struggle but we got him out. “He was losing a lot of blood. I told James I’m not going to let you die. When he asked what I did, I said ‘I’m a priest but don’t be alarmed!’ We shared some humour.”
After the accident, Dan’s son Aaron – then six – told him: “If you can do that with one arm, imagine what you could do with two.” The little boy then searched online for “hero arm” on his tablet and found a company called Open Bionics that makes bionic limbs called Hero Arms.
Dan became the first British vicar to receive a bionic arm and was then able to give his three children a proper hug for the first time ever.
It cost around £10,000, but he was funded by The Worshipful Company of Glovers after they heard of his amazing heroics and his son’s investigative skills.
Dan says: “The arm is such a blessing. I can hug my son with two arms, I can play computer games with him.”
James, now medically retired, had ten operations after the accident and survived against the odds.
He was desperate to thank Dan for saving his life and commissioned ceramicist Rich Miller to make a lighthouse for Dan, who has put it pride of place in his vicarage after their reunion.
James says: “A lighthouse is a beacon of light. It’s as close as I can ever get to really thanking him.”
■ The Woodland Workshop, tonight, 9pm on Quest.