Kind driver to rescue in roadside SOS

Wife thanks her good Samaritan

An elderly man who fell down on a roadside thicket was put back on his feet by a kindly stranger driving in the other direction.

Now his wife wants to thank the civic-minded driver from Abernethy.

Charles Wardrop (79) was caught short on the way back to his home in Perth after a Saturday trip to St Andrews with his wife on February 23.

The couple stopped on the Abernethy to Perth road and Mr Wardrop got out of the passenger seat. The pensioner had an operation on his foot a few days before and was wearing a surgical boot.

But his wife Isabel (76), heard him yelp and saw he had fallen in the mud and thick thorns at the side of the road and couldn’t get up.

She said: “It was terrible. Charles might have died if he wasn’t helped quickly. I’m a retired nurse, but I was helpless in this situation.

“We were at the roundabout with the butterfly. It was dusk and the road was dark and the weather was wild. I was on my own and I couldn’t get my husband off the ground. My mobile was out of battery and no-one was about.

“I went to the main road and tried to flag down a car. People wouldn’t stop, but then a wee Peugeot going down the other side of the road crossed the centre line and came to me.”

Grateful Isabel continued: “The young man - Michael Whyte - was fantastic and got Charles back up. My husband was visibly shaken, he’d not been long out of hospital and the fall in the dark was a shock.

“I thanked the man who stopped, but I never got his details, except that he lived in Abernethy. He was a real good Samaritan.

“I went back to ask in Abernethy the next day to see if anyone knew him, but no luck.”

Isabel and Charles Wardrop, who live in Viewlands Road, Perth hope Michael will contact the PA to be put in touch with them so they can thank him properly for his kindness in a frightening situation.

Charles might have died if he wasn’t helped quickly