Roll on Friday reports
A DWF solicitor had been given two bravery awards after he saved a man’s life by jumping into the Thames and pulling him to shore, RolIOnFriday can reveal.
Mike Cooper, an insurance specialist from the UK now based in Sydney, was jogging by the river last September after meeting clients in London when he encountered a small crowd of people.
“I wondered what was going on – I’ll be honest, I thought, ‘Bloody London. It’s some more street theatre getting in the way’”.
But when Cooper looked over, he saw there was a man floating face down in the water. The bystanders told Cooper they either couldn’t swim or weren’t strong enough to reach him in the choppy water, and had been trying to get the man’s attention and throw him a buoyancy aid instead.
“There were steps going down, so I didn’t do a full swan dive in or anything like that”, said Cooper. (He also didn’t do a Baywatch-style shirt-rip, prompting a friend to tell him afterwards: “Well, you bottled it then”.)
“For some reason, I don’t know why, I took my shoes off. I think I was psyching myself up because I’m not a brilliant swimmer”.
“It was quite rough, though he was only about 15 meters out at the most”, said Cooper. “I got about two mouthfuls of the Thames and can confirm it is disgusting.”
“When I got to him I was a bit worried myself, so I forgot all the stuff about putting a hand under the chin, and, because I used to play rugby (badly), I basically got him in a scrum and kicked, hauling him back.”
“He was quite a big guy, so when we got to the steps, the old gentleman who’d been trying to get his attention helped me with one of the arms and we pulled him up.”
“When I saw his face it was really pale, he had blue lips, and I feared the worst.”
Cooper rolled the man onto his back and placed his hands on his chest ready to begin CPR when the man suddenly “coughed up a load of water and started very, very weakly breathing”.
Within a few minutes the emergency services had arrived and Cooper was sent on his way.
“I was stood there, soaking and stinking because it’s the Thames, and the police officer said, ‘Have you got anywhere to go?’ Which I think was his way of saying, ‘Do you want a lift?’ I said ‘no’, because I was in a daze, and ended up trudging through central London”.
“I was quite shaken up after it”, said Cooper, who couldn’t sleep once he’d returned to his hotel.
“I didn’t know where to put it, if that makes sense. So it took me a little while of speaking to a few people to get comfortable with talking about it”.
“I don’t want to sound like a Christmas card, but I’m full of admiration for the people who do that on a day to day basis. I don’t know how they do it.”
The next morning the authorities told him the man’s oxygen levels had been so low that if Cooper hadn’t pulled him out “right then and then”, he would have died, or at the least suffered severe brain damage. Instead, he’s understood to have made a full recovery and is doing well.
Downplaying his actions, Cooper said, “I’m always looking for an excuse to cut a run short”, though he acknowledged that a river rescue “probably wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”
In recognition of his heroism, Cooper has been awarded the Royal Humane Society Testimonial on Vellum, which is given where someone has put themselves in considerable danger to save, or attempt to save, someone else. He’s also been given a commendation by the City of London – for which he’s going to tea in May with the City of London Police Commissioner.
Receiving accolades felt “very weird”, said Cooper, who was shopped to ROF by colleagues in the know. They said he was very humble and hadn’t told many people, but they “thought he deserved some wider recognition”.
His heroic acts don’t stop at the Thames – ROF has learned that he’s also created a charity challenge called Lifting the Lions.
Coinciding with the Lions Tour of Australia this summer, Cooper is seeking to raise money for families with MND in the UK and for autistic children in Australia by lifting the combined weight of every player, from every squad, from every match of the tour (that’s 48,000kg – the weight of an Airbus A321) in the 80 minutes it takes to complete a rugby match. “It hurts”, Cooper told ROF.
Chuck a few quid in the can here: Lifting the Lions is fundraising for Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect).
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/exclusive-dwf-lawyer-saved-drowning-man-thames
