Two Banbury heroes describe how they dragged a man from canal and saved his life with CPR

Luke Hardy and Sam Townsend sprang into action after they spotted a man lying unresponsive in the water.

They dragged him out of the water and gave him CPR, which saved his life.

Luke said: “It’s a bit strange, and it still hasn’t hit me yet that I have saved someone’s life.

“I have been getting a lot of positive messages and people saying they are proud of me, but if I’m honest, I don’t feel like I deserve the recognition; I was just doing what I thought was right.

“People have been calling me a hero, but I don’t see it that way; I was just there at the right time to help the man.”

On the morning of the incident on Wednesday (March 26), Photographer Luke Hardy was working from Banbury’s canalside Pizza Express.

Luke often enjoys taking his laptop there to edit photos and spend time with his friend Sam Townsend, who helps manage the restaurant.

At around 11am, Luke and Sam were disturbed by a group of people running towards the canal’s edge.

Luke said: “When I came out of the restaurant to see what was going on, it was like a scene from a film; there was a guy lying completely still and face down in the water.

"Someone from a nearby canal boat managed to push him to the water’s edge with a barge pole.

“At this point, Sam and I ran over to where the man was and helped pull him out of the water. When we got him out, his lips were blue, and he wasn’t breathing.”

Luke added: “I put him into the recovery position and tried tapping his back to see if I could get some water out of his body, but that didn’t really do anything.

“I then looked around and asked the small group of people there if anyone knew CPR, but everyone looked back at me bewildered, so I thought, I can’t just sit here; I need to do something.”

Thankfully, Luke had been on some first aid courses in the past and had completed CPR and medical training during his time in the army reserves.

He said: “I had done some CPR training in the past, but only on a dummy. It’s very different doing it on a real person in a situation like that.”

Luke, assisted by Sam, did CPR on the man for around a minute until he vomited up water and began breathing again.

At this point Luke rolled the man over on his side into the recovery position to clear his airway and checked for a pulse.

Luke continued: “I couldn’t feel a pulse because my adrenaline was going crazy, but I could feel him breathing, but only very laboured.

“Not long after this, the fire service arrived, and Sam called the ambulance who were on their way.”

The fire service took over from Luke and Sam, and the man was transported to a Thames Valley Air Ambulance helicopter.

Luke says without Sam’s calming presence and advice, he may not have been able to react so quickly and efficiently in helping the man.