Youthful resolve

As he strolled along the steep bank of the River Derwent, in the Derbyshire countryside, someone called out, “Please help me save her!”

Janet Dolman, 73, was clinging to the bank. A sheepdog, whining with fear, was trapped in the rushing waters below. It had chased something down there, but now it couldn’t scramble up the wet, muddy sides.

Thomas knew few people came this way and he had no mobile phone, so he slithered down the bank with Janet and held her while she tried to reach over to the dog. It was too far away, so Janet jumped into the chest-deep water and handed the dog over. Thomas heaved it up the slope.

He looked back. Janet was trying to clamber up the bank, but now she, too, kept sliding back into the water. Thomas edged closer, but skidded and had to grab a clump of grass to stop himself falling. Still, he reached out his other hand to Janet.

He pulled hard and she tried to raise her knee on to a ledge, only to slip back into the water. Thomas tried again and again to get her out, but the bank was too wet. Several minutes passed. Thomas was fit, but exhaustion was setting in. If he fell down the bank he could be badly injured on the rocks below. The path was so remote the two of them could be stranded for days, with hypothermia setting in sooner. But leaving Janet in the water while he got help wasn’t an option.

Thomas spotted a shallower section of riverbank and crawled over, clinging to overhanging bushes. “Let’s try here,” he shouted. Janet waded towards him into waist-high muddy water. Thomas hauled her closer to him, but the mud held her fast. More than half an hour had passed, but he tightened his grip and pulled with what was left of his strength. Janet’s knees appeared above the water and she clambered over rocks and up the bank to safety.

As they trudged towards home, they saw Thomas’s father. Once he’d recovered from the sight of the bedraggled pair, he drove Janet home, where she quickly recovered.

Thomas is bashful about the rescue, but Janet is full of praise. “He doesn’t say a lot, but he wants to do right. At 14, that’s not bad, is it?”