Sea Point stranger saved my life

PLEASE allow me to use your pages to thank a kind Capetonian who directly intervened and probably saved my life when I fell ill in Main Road in Sea Point on February 4.

I’m a regular visitor to South Africa and come here to escape the UK winter. It’s a highpoint of my year.

This time, however, I fell ill. I did not improve after seeing a doctor, so I went to the Spar supermarket to buy paracetamol.

On leaving, I started to collapse outside the shop. I was holding on to the wall and on the point of final collapse when a Mercedes screeched to a halt on the pavement beside me.

The driver jumped out of the car and ran towards me to assist. He offered to take me back to my hotel and somehow bundled me into his car.

He then drove me to the hotel and arranged for a wheelchair to take me to my room.

He informed the hotel’s reception desk and the medical response system, and left. He gave me his phone number and address and name, which I duly lost during the trauma.

I spent the next seven days in intensive care at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital and am now fully recovered.

I live in Central London, where passing on the other side of the street with no eye contact is the code of behaviour.

My faith in humanity is significantly reinforced by my experience with the man in the Mercedes, and I would love the opportunity of thanking him personally for his kindness and direct intervention.