Most people run away from danger but our amazing emergency services head straight towards it.
These first responders, who all went above and beyond the call of duty, are the four finalists in the This Morning Emergency Services Award at the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, with TSB.
The winner will be announced at a star-studded event at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, Central London, on October 24.
PC Simon Toft and PC Alicia Snowden
Alicia had only done five weeks of training when she and her colleague Simon responded to a flurry of emergency calls.
A man armed with a meat cleaver, a metal pole and three knives was threatening to stab patients at a medical centre in March 2021.
“I had no time to brief Alicia and she had never been in any conflict situation before,” says Simon, 46. “I remember saying to her, ‘I’ll keep you safe, and just promise you’ll keep me safe’.”
The pair headed into the surgery in Stockport, Gtr Manchester, where people had barricaded themselves into rooms.
They were faced with a man later identified as Michael Brannigan, 50, who had robbed a pharmacy and attacked a stranger minutes earlier.
Simon recalls: “Alicia then screamed ‘He’s got a knife!’ He just lunged at me to try to stab me, so I tasered him.”
But Brannigan ripped the taser from his chest.
Alicia kicked away his metal pole. Simon adds: “She then did the most perfect partial strike on his shoulder, which caused him to fall back, giving me time to take the second shot.”
Alicia, 32, then jumped in and cuffed the criminal, who was later jailed for three years.
East Anglian Air Ambulance
When the crew were called to an emergency on a farm in October 2020 they encountered a truly shocking scene.
Jonathan Willis, 42, was impaled against a pile of hay bales with a forklift spike through his chest. The farmer had been loading the trailer when the machine rolled into him.
“It took a few moments really just to comprehend what was going on,” critical care paramedic Andy Bates explains.
The team, which included pilots Eduardo Prato and Paul Smith, and doctor Nathan Howes, set to work, coming up with a plan to free Jonathan and get him to hospital.
“We were mindful that although he was talking and conscious at that point, this could all change as he would be bleeding internally,” says Andy. They used an angle grinder to cut the spike but had to stop often to cool it with water so the metal did not conduct heat into Jonathan’s body.
In all, it took an hour to cut him free, and then he was transported from Guyhirn, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, to hospital for a seven-hour operation led by surgeon Emmanuel Huguet.
Andy says: “There was an element of doubt in all of our minds as to whether he was going to survive the operation.”
However, they got a call the next day to say that he was up and talking.
The team went to visit Jonathan and his wife Wendy once he had recovered. Andy says: “He was on such good form. It was really powerful for all of us.
“We have a lot of sadness in our job and actually having such a happy outcome was a massive boost to morale for the team.”
Dave Boardman
Ambulance worker Dave was on a night shift in Blackpool in February 2018, driving back from A&E, when he smelled smoke, and soon saw a tower block in flames.
Dave, 44, says: “The fire had taken over one of the flats and was in the roof, moving across.” He radioed control as his colleague Alan Mitchell tended to a man writhing in pain on the ground, who later turned out to be the arsonist, and who had just leapt out of a window.
He says: “It was after midnight and people were asleep in bed. Looking at how quickly the fire was spreading, there wasn’t much time to play with, so I went in.”
He began knocking on doors, waking the residents and taking them out of the building, one by one. By the time he got to the top floor it was pitch black with smoke. Dave says: “I couldn’t see. I had to feel along the walls to get to the doors.” The fumes burned his throat and he had to be taken to hospital but his bravery meant he got 22 people out.
Dave says: “I’d like to think everybody would do the same. Working for the ambulance service you see how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken away.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
PC Leon Mittoo and PC James Willetts
Patrolling a shopping centre, Leon and James spotted two men acting suspiciously.
Wearing thick clothing despite the 30C heat, and carrying large backpacks, the men did not stop when challenged – so the officers chased after them.
The situation took a horrifying turn when one of the men produced a large knife.
James says: “One ran towards me screaming, brandishing something and swinging it around erratically.”
They were attacked, with Leon being repeatedly stabbed in the torso and back, and struck on the head. James was stabbed in the head, a wound that was millimetres away from being life-threatening.
Leon says of the traumatic incident, in West Bromwich, West Mids, in July 2021: “I was extremely scared. When I was on the floor I knew he’d already cut me once. I’ll be honest, I thought I was going to die. I just thought ‘This is it for me now’.”
Despite their injuries, the brave officers managed to remain calm and eventually overpower and arrest their attackers.
They then discovered an arsenal of weapons in their bags, including a machete, knives and an imitation firearm.
James explains that the attack has strengthened his resolve to be a police officer “because it shows the dangers that are out there”.
