8-year-old Emily Reunites her Dad with the Man whose Life he Saved.

Failsworth born Brian had been cycling in Broadbottom Tameside just outside Manchester in 2013 when he lost control and fell down a sheer drop, hitting a tree and plunging into the river below. Stephen, one of the people who helped rescue Brian takes up the story.

“We were camping and I was heading up to the shops when I heard a lady shouting there’s a man in the river. She was trying to phone the ambulance so I sprinted off and ran down the embankment of the river. I saw a bike and looked down to see just a helmet sticking out of the water and I couldn’t believe that was a person. I shouted “Can you hear me, are you awake?” as I walked into the water, and then I heard a groan. That groan got me across even faster! As I got to Brian his eyes were shut and his head was in and out of the water. I lifted his head up and supported him and shouted to him to wake up and he opened his eyes, his lips were purple and he said “I can’t feel my legs.” He was submerged apart from his left shoulder. As I put my arm around him and I felt the damage around his spine I knew there was something seriously wrong. He was too injured to move so I am screaming for help at the top of my lungs. I was desperate for someone to direct the ambulance crew to where we were and all the time keeping Brian awake and speaking. Eventually the paramedics arrived and then we placed him on a spinal bord to get him across the river and off he went in an ambulance and that was the last I saw of him. We met people after in the village and they told us he hadn’t made it and I was devastated to think that all that effort had been in vain. I can’t sum up in words how horrific the experience was.”

Many years on since his accident Brian who is now spinal cord injured and a wheelchair user has written a series of successful children’s books called ‘The Adventures of Grandad Wheels!’ based on the silly things he gets up to with his Grandson, Charles and all the proceeds go to charity. He visits schools to read his stories and to help to educate young people about disability and break down myths.

One of those visits was to Gorse Covert Primary School on 4th July 2022. Brian had only done 72 school visits out of a possible 5000 in the north and prior to his visit the school wrote to parents asking if anyone wanted to order one of his books in advance.

Not every parent requested one, but one little girl called Emily went home with a signed book, ordered by her dad Stephen. When she got home, she described how this man in a wheelchair had come into school to do an assembly and how he had talked about what happened to him.

Stephen recalls:

“I don’t mind telling you the blood drained from my face when I realised who it was and that he had survived and our efforts hadn’t been in vain”.

Brian, Steve and Emily were all part of the celebration at the school on Tuesday 13th December. So far more than 18,500 children and teaching staff in the north have heard Brian speak about his experiences with him reaching his fundraising target of £51,000 for charity.

Brian said:

“I owe my life to Stephen and everyone else who helped me on the day. Some 9 years after the event he came into my life by the most bizarre co-incidence. It’s almost as though someone wanted this to happen. The chance of my being in that school and for that little girl to get a book must be ridiculously small. But it happened and I couldn’t be happier about it!”

As for Emily, her dad Stephen says she now has all the Grandad wheels books and that’s all she talks about because she loves the adventures in them.

“Brian is a fantastic role model to young people proving that disability is no obstacle explaining to children about disability and the challenges that other people can face.”