Drowning man is saved by business pair running late
A businessman has described how he and a colleague saved a man from drowning in the River Medway as they were both running late for an industry dinner.
Ben London, 39, from Maidstone, was travelling to a celebratory evening at the Graze Kitchen restaurant in Tonbridge when the drama unfolded last Wednesday.
He said: “We were really late and everything was against us arriving on time with heavy traffic.
“We were walking and from across the road we spotted a man swaying. I said to my friend ‘he’s going to go’ and literally in seconds he was in the water.”
The father of two and his colleague Matt Francis, 41, ran to the water’s edge and threw in a life ring to help the man, who was lying face down and trying to swim.
Mr London, of Upper Road, said: “He could not grab the rope and then he went still, so I stripped off and jumped in. The water was freezing and I cut my foot.”
After the man was taken to hospital Mr London still arrived at the dinner albeit without his evening clothes and a bit damp.
The web designer and marketing boss, who set up his company What If 10 years ago, said: “There was no one else about and it happened so quickly. It was almost like it was fate.” A spokesman for the ambu- lance service said: “We were called just before 8.30pm and initially thought two men had fallen in the river but it turned out a quick-thinking passer-by jumped in after him about 15 seconds after a man fell.
“He was fully conscious when we pulled him from the water and was taken to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital as a priority.”