The BBC 999 Awards

From BBC Television Centre, welcome to The BBC 999 Awards.

I think it's going to be an incredibly emotional night tonight.

You can't really thank the emergency services enough, I think.

We don't get much time to celebrate not just the successes,

but the hard work that the emergency services do.

All of them do such an amazing job and I think largely unrecognised.

They deal with incredible difficulties every day,

difficulties that most of us will never have to deal with or see.

The risk their own lives to save others

and people are very grateful for that.

These are good people who've done good things.

I think tonight is the night to say, "Actually, it is all about you."

It's amazing to be here,

to be able to appreciate the hard work that people do in the services.

I think it's going to be a very inspiring and humbling night.

I'm just looking forward to meeting the real heroes, really.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your hosts -

Lenny Henry and Kirsty Young.

APPLAUSE

Good evening, and welcome to the first ever BBC 999 Awards.

Come on!

APPLAUSE

Tonight, you'll hear remarkable stories of astonishing bravery,

supreme ability and selfless dedication,

as we honour the extraordinary work of the UK's emergency services.

We'll be presenting these awards to members of the police,

fire and ambulance services, coastal and mountain rescue teams

and nine hundred and ninety-nine operat... Blimey, we'll be here all night!

Sorry, that's 999 operators. Sorry about that.

What he's trying to say is that every minute of the day,

every day of the year, the emergency services

go to unbelievable lengths to make each and every one of us safe.

Tonight, we have some incredible stories to tell you.

Here's just a taste of what's to come.

I just happened to be the person that was called on that day

and had to make that decision.

A balloon trapped in a pylon is not an everyday occurrence.

All you could see was orange flames.

I heard the fear, the anxiety, the terror in his voice, straightaway.

We knew that the crew on board were in danger.

It became pretty obvious that his heart had stopped beating.

We all wanted the patient out,

but we knew it was not going to be a quick rescue.

He'd made a decision he was going to stay with that patient till the very end.

To make a life-changing decision like that takes some nerve.

He must really care about people.

He doesn't just see it as a job, it's his way of life.

He would do it again. No ifs or buts.

I want to show you something that you might just enjoy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Ashraf Uddin!

To me, he's a hero.

I'm very lucky that they were around that night.

I wouldn't be alive today.

They're special people to my life and they're like my angels.

I won't forget it now.

APPLAUSE

Well, I have a feeling it's going to be quite an emotional evening.

These services are vital to many people, like the woman in Wales

who dialled 999 to ask how it took to roast a turkey

because she didn't want to poison her family.

The operator said,

"You cook it, love. If you do poison them, give us another ring."

Or the student who rang the police

because he was trapped in an ironing board.

First of all, what was a student doing near an ironing board?

Was he trying to find out what it was?

Perhaps he thought was an exercise machine and was trying to row it into the kitchen.

I thought we'd get the frivolous ones out of the way.

Thank you for that. Tonight, we are going to be presenting 12 awards,

most of which were nominated from within the emergency services themselves.

An eminent panel of judges then decided on the winners.

For every award we present tonight,

there are countless other heroes and heroines

to whom we owe our lives and safety.

The number 999 is a number we all know about,

but one we never want to call.

Tonight, all our stories start with a 999 phone call.

It has been, as you can imagine, really hard singling out

individuals for our awards, not least because

the people who work in the emergency services

say it's all about teamwork.

And our first award is a perfect example.

Without the combined efforts of four members of the Gloucestershire police force,

it's unlikely that van driver John Naughton would be with us today.

'Police emergency.

'I'm on the A48 towards the Bore pub.

'There's a van, a car is on fire,

'and there's somebody trapped in the van.

'I can see him waving. The car's on fire.

'OK. We'll get the fire service as soon as possible.'

The initial report was vehicle on fire.

What size of fire we were unaware at that time.

All you could see was orange flames

literally rolling over the front of the windscreen.

Your adrenaline kicks in.

You could feel the heat and the smoke.

-It was quite a horrific scene.

-My first thought was, "Oh, my God."

Despite the obvious danger,

Hayley and Stuart ran towards the burning van.

There was no way I was going to get in through the driver's door,

absolutely no way, because of the flames.

I can remember the heat against my face, against my arm.

The steering column in the car just literally collapsed.

Could not move his legs.

The fire was now dangerously close to the van's fuel tank.

It was getting hotter and hotter and hotter in there

and then I heard the first explosion.

The driver was John Naughton, a father of five.

He said, "It's OK, leave me.

"I've phoned my wife and my daughter, just leave me."

I thought, "We've got to get him out. We've got to get him out."

Hayley and Stuart refused to give up hope.

But time was running out.

It was then that PCs Jon Cann and Simon Wilson arrived on the scene.

We just ran straight to the scene.

Our attention was getting that driver out of the van.

The flames, the heat, the fluids on the road, time was ticking.

I said, "We need to get him out.

"We can't seem to free his legs, it needs the four of us to pull him."

It was a case of, "Right, we're doing this, we've got to do it."

The strength and bravery of the four officers working together

was enough to free John...

..saving his life.

My mum came to wake me and my brother up.

My dad, he was in the van, and he rang her.

She just said, "Accident," that's all I can remember.

Said that he was in a crash

and said he didn't think he was going to make it.

I don't think I would be able to leave him dying like that without trying.

At the time we did a job, and I think, looking back,

we realised that we'd done a pretty good job.

Some people would call it crazy or stupid,

but you just think, "Well, this person needs our help

"and we're the only people here to do it," you know.

When you talk to the individuals,

they never, ever describe themselves as brave.

It was very brave indeed.

I'm very grateful and honoured to be able to represent these officers,

because the things they do are brave

and they're very extraordinary people.

Another five minutes, ten minutes...

I don't think I would have been here.

I don't really want to think about it.

It would have changed everything really, wouldn't it?

I'm just glad that he's here and

what could have happened is something that doesn't cross my mind,

I try to block it out.

I'm very lucky that they were around that night and got there in time.

Thank you isn't enough.

Ladies and gentlemen,

our staggeringly brave team of police officers -

Hayley Howes, Stuart Dudfield, Jon Cann and Simon Wilson.

# Shake it out, shake it out Oh, whoa

# Shake it out, shake it out

# Shake it out, shake it out Oh, whoa

# It's hard to dance with a devil on your back

# So shake him off

# Oh, woah

# I am done with my graceless heart... #

So to present the team with their award,

please welcome a TV cop who broke all the rules

and an Olympic athlete who broke all the records.

Ladies and gentlemen, Philip Glenister and Dame Kelly Holmes.

# Oh, I swear to you

# I'll be there for you

# This is not a drive-by

# Just a shy guy

# Looking for a two-ply

# Hefty bag to hold my love

# When you move me everything is groovy... #

First of all, from both of us, congratulations on the award.

We were just wondering, how long did this whole episode take?

Time really wasn't something that you put into it.

You get there and you think and you just deal with it.

At the time, when I got into the van with him, he said,

"It's all right, leave me,

"I've phoned my wife, I've phoned my daughter and I've said goodbye."

I'm like, "Don't be so silly, we're getting you out! Come on!"

And he said, "No, no,

"I've said my goodbyes, thank you very much, just leave me."

I went, "No."

I said, "Come on, you're a big bloke,

"I need you to help me get you out of here."

And to be fair, I couldn't do it on my own

and if these three guys hadn't have been here,

then I wouldn't have been able to have done it.

Was there any moment of panic, though?

I don't think I could have that conversation...

Did you take his seat belt off?

Luckily they haven't played the radio recording.

I think some of it might have been bleeped out

when we initially got there!

I think when the van started to explode, I think it was,

"Oh, this isn't very good, the van's started to explode!

"But there's still a guy trapped and we need to get him out."

Well done. What would Gene Hunt have done in that situation?

He would have probably sent Raymondo in.

LAUGHTER

Please show your appreciation to Philip, Kelly

and most of all police officers Hayley Howes, Jon Cann,

Stuart Dudfield and Simon Wilson.

APPLAUSE

-Fantastic. That's an amazing story.

-A brilliant team.

Now paramedics are so often on the front line of most 999 calls.

When you think of a paramedic, you tend to think of an ambulance

but the story we're about to tell you starts up in the sky.

Earlier this year, Aneurin Heath and his Welsh air ambulance crew

were called out to a severely injured man trapped on a beach.

To make matters worse, the tide was coming in.

When the call came in,

the information control gave us was limited.

We decided to get airborne immediately.

We didn't know the extent of his injuries at that particular point.

The only information we had was that he'd fallen off the cliff.

We scoured up and down the beach until we could find the patient

and his partner on the rock face.

One of us needed to get to him to assess his situation.

This obviously was a time-critical job

purely because the water, you can tell, was coming quite rapidly.

The only way to get to this patient

was actually land the aircraft in the cove itself.

You need a landing site about the size of a tennis court.

This was a bit smaller than that.

You go into automatic mode.

That patient down below is not going to live unless we get in here.

Grant said, "As soon as I land on the beach, you have to get out immediately, I can't stay here."

I didn't hesitate, got out of the aircraft,

closed the door, and Grant took off.

As soon as I examined the patient,

I understood immediately the life-threatening condition he was in.

Aneurin was in automatic mode.

He was in complete concentration on the patient

and didn't realise the actual water coming in on the cove.

The only way to get the casualty out of the cove

would be to winch him out, but this was a job for an RAF Sea King

which would take ten minutes to arrive

and the one thing they didn't have was time.

The tide was coming in rapidly.

They were running out of time and he'd made a decision

he was going to say with that patient to the very end.

The water had actually come over

the top of the patient's face at one particular time.

He probably would have had about 15 minutes

before he was actually submerged.

Aneurin was waist deep in water, trying to keep the patient afloat.

In the back of my mind, I knew I was up against time

and we needed to move a little bit quicker.

We were in really extreme conditions, if you like.

It was at that particular point that the RAF Sea King helicopter came.

It was probably just the right time to winch them out...

..otherwise we'd be talking about a different story.

To me, he's a hero.

He's put my son's life before his own as far as I'm concerned.

Anybody that can do that deserves everything anyone can give him.

I think the easiest way to explain it would be,

if any of my family were ever in need of somebody,

Aneurin is the person I'd want to be turning up.

You know, he would do it again, Aneurin would do that job again.

No ifs or buts.

He wouldn't even think about his own life or the risk to his own life,

he would do that job again if it came up.

There are a lot of other paramedics out there

who do the same job as I do not just in Wales,

but elsewhere as well, who find themselves in difficult circumstances

and would have probably done the same thing if they'd been in my shoes.

I could never thank him enough. Never, ever.

Because without him, now I wouldn't have a son.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome paramedic Aneurin Heath.

APPLAUSE

You were the last man to take the credit. Well done, fantastic.

And to present the award, please welcome the only man

tall enough to be Miranda Hart's on-screen love interest,

and a woman that's about to return to EastEnders,

sending shock waves around Albert Square,

ladies and gentlemen, Tom Ellis and Letitia Dean.

# Baby, you light up my world like nobody else

# The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed

# But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell

# You don't know... #

-Congratulations.

-Thank you, thank you.

-Oh, two kisses there, please!

-Congratulations.

Well, we'd like to present this to you for absolute wonderful bravery.

We were just looking at the VT backstage,

and just thinking, that period between waiting

for the Sea King helicopter to come, I mean, was there ever a moment where you thought,

"This isn't going to arrive," or were you confident?

-Was there something inside you?

-Er, no, I wasn't, really.

LAUGHTER

OK!

As you said on the TV, that the time and tide was against us, unfortunately.

It was a case of, I was on my own down the bottom there,

but what you've got to think is that I had a good backup team.

Basically, we are a team on the aircraft,

and I can't thank Grant enough.

His skill and dedication of getting me

into that particular tight spot saved his life as well.

-So you share this award with him?

-I share it with him.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

Show your thanks, then, please, to Tom, Letitia and Aneurin.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Throughout tonight's ceremony,

we'll be presenting three Special Recognition awards.

These are for a person or a team who have made an outstanding

contribution to the emergency services in one way or another.

Our first Special Recognition award goes to a firefighter,

a brave man who's saved countless lives here in the UK.

However, he decided to take those skills and use them

all around the world,

saving hundreds of lives wherever disaster strikes.

I joined Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue in 1975,

but about two years earlier than that,

I joined work's fire brigade, so I've been in and around fire brigades

since about 1973, and, yeah, never looked back since then, I suppose.

Neil's reputation is one just of an absolutely really nice guy.

He's interested in people, he loves the job that he does,

he's interested in the community he serves

and he's a very good firefighter as well.

But in 1989, Neil decided to take his work further afield,

setting up an international search and rescue team based in Lincolnshire.

What appealed to me about it was that I felt we had

knowledge and skills that weren't being used to their full and in that environment

that we could use them to assist the people that were in distress.

His first major challenge came in 2001.

In India, the first earthquake that I went to,

I went on the back of a scooter from our base camp to the incident.

My team went in a taxi

and a few hand tools went in the back of a pickup truck.

And with that, I was expected to rescue about 70 people.

Neil and his team have assisted in rescue operations

in Pakistan, Japan and Haiti, saving hundreds of lives.

One of the most triumphant occasions,

we'd been working to release a young girl from a basement.

The time period, I think, was six or seven hours.

And when we got her out, it was...everybody was just so happy.

When you go to these earthquakes,

and Neil's seen a lot of tragedy, but he's also had

a lot of success as well, and again, it's the inspirational leadership,

you actually pull somebody out of the debris,

and that's why we do it, and that's why we're thankful for people like Neil.

He doesn't just see it as a job, it's his way of life,

it's what he gets up in the morning for,

to make sure that everything always improves,

so, yeah, I really couldn't think of anybody more deserving than this.

We're expecting Neil to retire in June-July of next year,

and obviously, with a character of Neil's standing and experience,

it's going to be a huge hole in the service to fill.

I feel as though he's representing me and he's representing

the guys who initially started off on this journey, 25 years ago.

So, yes, he deserves it. He deserves it on behalf of all of us.

What a truly inspirational man. In fact, Neil is so incredible,

we thought it'd be nice to give him just a little surprise.

We found out that Neil loves cars, and he also loves his music,

in particular, the singer Rumer.

-Add Amanda Byram into the mix, and Neil was in...

-Amanda Byram?!

-..for the surprise of his life.

-Cor!

OK, so, Neil has absolutely no idea that I'm here today.

He hasn't got a clue what's lined up for him,

but I have a very, very special surprise.

So I really hope he's home. Or this could get embarrassing.

-DOORBELL RINGS

-He's getting the fright of his life.

It's definitely the right house?

DOORBELL RINGS TWICE

SHE MOUTHS

-Hello there. Hi.

-Hello.

-I'm Amanda Byram. How you doing?

-All right, thank you.

-I'm actually on a special mission from the BBC today.

-Oh, right.

-Hmm.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah, yeah. Bit shocked.

Are you doing anything, are you ready to go out?

-You want to take a spin with me?

-I am ready, yeah.

-All right. Come with me, then.

-TIGER ROARS

-What do you reckon?

-Looks fantastic.

-Pretty decent, eh?

Well, I've heard you're a bit of a petrolhead. Is that true?

-Yeah, I like my cars.

-You feel the need for speed?

-Yeah.

-All right.

-Well, how about you drive, then, eh?

-Oh, yeah!

ENGINE ROARS

-Is this the local, then?

-This is.

-All right. Let's go for a jar.

-Yeah.

Now, what Neil doesn't know is that his family and colleagues

are waiting for him in the pub.

THEY ALL CHEER

-Do you recognise a face or two here, Neil?

-Just a few, yeah!

Look at you!

We are here to thank you,

Neil, for your outstanding career in the fire service.

An absolute true inspiration, Neil.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

There's just, er, the teeny, eeny little matter of, what was it again?

Oh, yeah, the fact that you have won a BBC 999 Award, Neil.

Congratulations!

THEY CHEER

So, that's not all. I've got something else up my sleeve tonight.

We know who your favourite singer is.

And, er, they have decided that you are special enough to come

and perform just for you, here tonight.

-Really?

-Yeah.

LAUGHTER

So, Neil, and ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rumer!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-There she is!

-(Wow!)

# Ooh, you make me live

# Oh, you're the best friend

# That I ever had

# I've been with you such a long time

# You're my sunshine

# And I want you to know

# That my feelings are true

# I really love you

# Ooh, you're my best friend

# Ooh, you're my best friend. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to welcome to the stage

Neil Fritzsche!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

As Lenny said earlier, being part of the emergency services,

in particular the fire service, it's all about teamwork,

it's not about the individual, so whilst I'm honoured

to have this lifetime award, I've worked in many and with many fantastic teams

and people throughout my time in the fire service.

Thank you very much,

and thank you to everybody that I know that's helped me in my career.

It's truly very much appreciated.

APPLAUSE

Our next award is for Mountain Rescue.

Throughout the UK, there are 80 mountain rescue teams

who, at a moment's notice, drop everything and head out into some of the most

hostile environments in the UK. What you might not know

is the mountain rescue teams are volunteers.

-They really are heroes.

-The rescue that you are about to see

happened last November in the Lake District.

Eddie Hurst had slipped and fallen 300 feet down a rock face.

It was an incredibly difficult

and complicated rescue that took 32 men and women to complete.

The only information we had was that a walker had fallen 300 foot.

Basically, you drop everything

and you just leave the house as quickly as you can.

SIRENS BLARE

Straight away, because of the nature

of where it's at, in Lorton Gully,

it was going to be a complicated rescue.

We know it is particularly dangerous ground.

Rocky drops all the way down,

it is always on your mind that this might be a fatality.

When we arrived, it was clear that he was in a bad situation.

He had fallen 300 foot onto this ledge and, luckily,

he managed to stop himself.

The fact that he had stopped was a miracle, really.

We could see him hanging on to bits of heather, basically.

Immediately below him, there's a 100 foot vertical drop.

He was clinging on for dear life

and it was really a case of how much longer is he going to hold on to this for?

Our first priority was to get in and secure the casualty.

Daylight was fading. We knew it was going to get dark soon,

the temperature would start to drop.

It had the potential to go very, very wrong, that situation.

The team managed to reach the casualty

but securing him and assessing his injuries over a 100 foot drop

wasn't going to be easy.

Your mind starts to think about how on earth are we going to get

this person off the face?

The best way to actually get the casualty out was to lift him.

It was very difficult to get enough people around him

to actually safely lift him onto the stretcher.

We've got to get this guy secured as fast as possible.

It'd be foolish to say we weren't scared.

It took 32 men and women just under two hours.

But thanks to these brave volunteers,

the casualty was airlifted to safety,

amazingly only suffering minor injuries.

If we hadn't got to him in the time we had,

then I dread to think of what might have happened.

-I think the team saved his life.

-This was a tough call-out.

It was a long call-out.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a dangerous call-out.

Everybody that was out there was doing a vital piece of work.

Being a member of Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team is something that I am eternally proud of.

We're all unpaid volunteers from all walks of life.

It really is 40 friends working together.

It's a way of life and it's an extra family, really.

I'm biased, so I think it's the best team in the world.

It's a large part of my life.

It takes up a lot of time in my life,

but I'm quite happy to give up that time and give something back.

They are the most amazing group of people

and I am so, so privileged to be part of them.

Please welcome to the stage the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team.

I'll catch up with the kissing in a minute.

To present the award, an impassioned hill walker

and a multitalented star of stage and screen.

Please welcome both Julia Bradbury and John Barrowman.

APPLAUSE

I don't mind all the kissing.

It's not a problem.

We work with mountain rescue teams quite a lot on Countryfile.

And I've been privileged enough to be involved in some of your training exercises.

I'd like to reiterate that all the gentlemen and ladies involved in mountain rescue

are volunteers so it's an incredible job that they do, giving up their time.

Eddie, who was part of that film, can't be here tonight,

but he's got these words to say.

"I would never have got out of that gully of my own.

"I was so lucky to survive the fall and lucky that they were very quick to rescue me.

"I'd like to thank the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team.

"I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for them. They do incredible work."

I think it's important to realise that this was just

one rescue of hundreds that are carried out every year

by the 50+ mountain rescue teams in England and Wales.

And they're all unpaid volunteers. So this was just one.

Thank you very much,

and well done to you and all the team.

APPLAUSE

When we started work on these awards,

we received hundreds of nominations across all the categories,

reflecting all the hard work,

bravery and courage of the emergency services throughout the country.

It's not just casualties who are affected

when people need emergency help. Family and friends feel the impact

when someone they love is in trouble.

Here's Dame Helen Mirren and some more people

who just want to say a very heartfelt thank you.

Good evening. Almost a year ago,

a friend of mine had his life saved by a volunteer paramedic

when he collapsed at a film premiere. Since that incident,

I have become patron of the Voluntary Responder Group and I am now

so aware of the great work the emergency services do every single day.

Thanks to police officers, fire officers and paramedics,

my friend Chris is alive to tell his story.

I was on my way to a film premiere. And I had a cardiac arrest.

Had I not been standing where I was standing,

surrounded by those amazing people, I would be dead.

I'd just like to say thank you, Al Moore,

John Stuart, Ross Ferguson and the guys for saving my life.

Here are some more tributes

from other people who wouldn't be around either

if it wasn't for the incredible work

of the emergency services and volunteers.

Danielle Woldie would like to thank Fiona Thompson

who gave her two-year-old son CPR by the side of the road

when he stopped breathing.

Lottie Taylor was badly injured after her horses bolted,

dragging her along the ground.

Air ambulance paramedic Stuart Plumbley

had to treat her on the scene.

If it wasn't for him,

and the air ambulance, I don't think I'd be sitting here today.

Gavin Boyce wants to express his gratitude to police officers

Ed Inglis and Jess Hallybone who resuscitated him

after he suffered a cardiac arrest when he was out running.

Catherine Edgington would like to thank East Anglia Air Ambulance

for their help when she suffered from anaphylactic shock.

Nick Harper fell while climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland.

There was definitely a question mark whether I was going to live.

I owe my life to Lochaber Rescue Team.

And they have my eternal thanks and gratitude.

APPLAUSE

Brilliant. Of course, all of our award winners are heroes

but to be a hero, you don't have to be a member of the emergency services.

Our next hero is an ordinary school teacher

who does something extraordinary.

He gives up every spare moment volunteering to help others.

Let me tell you that everyone who knows Ashraf Uddin

in London's Forest Gate knows that he really is a local hero.

I wanted to join St John Ambulance mainly to help

the local community and to actually learn first aid skills.

He's a great person and always willing to help and go out

and do various different duties.

Ash is one in a million.

You wouldn't find a lot of people like Ash,

especially in this day and age.

It's the little school fetes, it's the little walkathons,

little events that happens

that he's quite willing to actually do as well.

Ashraf is so committed to St John Ambulance that each year

he gives up to 700 hours of his time.

I am a very busy man but thankfully my family are very supportive of me.

Imagine your friend has just fallen off a tree

when he was climbing up there to get a ball.

Would you know how to make an emergency 999 call?

But Ashraf's real passion is passing on his knowledge

to the next generation of lifesavers.

It gives me an opportunity to work with the community

and being able to deliver first aid sessions and promoting the work to young people.

Ashraf is a really fantastic teacher.

The kids really enjoy going to his lessons. He's passionate

about making a difference to them.

He shares his learning experiences with them.

And I know the kids leave the lessons feeling, you know,

they really learned something today

and they can transfer that knowledge into their daily lives.

His lessons aren't boring

and you don't want to tune out as soon as he starts speaking

like some other teachers.

Make sure your fingers don't touch the rib.

Make sure your arms are nice and straight.

You never know, when we're older,

we might even get to be like Ashraf, be all nice and helping people.

Ash is very deserving of this award

because there's not a lot of people like him who go out

on so many occasions to help other people

and so far out of their way, as well.

I think the things that motivate Ashraf are the community,

working together, helping people.

He has a young family, he has a full-time job, but, yet,

he finds time to go out there and to do the community work, you know.

-I take my hat off to the man.

-This guy must...

he must really care about people.

Well done, Ashraf!

Fantastic. Now, we wanted to make a bit of a song and dance for Ashraf to say thank you,

so we sent him to Trafalgar Square,

not just to see the pigeons, but for London's West End Live

for a big surprise from Mr Showbusiness himself,

EastEnders' John Partridge!

Ashraf thinks he's filming a documentary about St John Ambulance.

Little does he know that we're about to surprise him

in front of thousands of people.

West End Live, make some noise! Listen, ladies and gentlemen,

I am here to welcome somebody onto the stage

who is a very, very special guy.

Now the person that I'm looking for, I think,

is over here and that is Mr Ashraf Uddin.

If you could just make your way up to the stage, please, Ashraf.

Now, listen, ladies and gentlemen,

when Ashraf comes up here onto the stage,

can you please make a really, really, REALLY lot of noise for him

because he's really a truly special guy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Ashraf Uddin!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-How are you doing there, Ashraf?

-Very well, thank you.

Now, have you got any idea what I'm doing here today?

Not really.

Well, ladies and gentlemen,

this man has been nominated for a BBC 999 Award.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now, Ashraf, not only have you been nominated for this BBC 999 Award,

but I am here to tell you that you are the winner...

-Oh, wow.

-..you are the winner of our Local Hero Award.

And that is for the outstanding contribution you make

with St John Ambulance. You are a truly amazing guy.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

So, ladies and gentlemen, please meet our local hero, Ashraf Uddin.

APPLAUSE

-Well done. How fantastic is that?

-Brilliant. This is amazing.

-Thank you.

-Is there anything you'd like to say?

Yeah, I just really want to thank the BBC

for the effort they've actually put into this

and helping recognise the good work

of the emergency services and volunteers and, most importantly,

my family, my wife, Collie, and my two children, Amelia and Jamil,

-because, obviously, you know...

-They don't see you?

-Yeah.

Voluntary work takes up a lot of time

so, yeah, I want to thank them for their patience

and their support as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, our local hero, Ashraf Uddin. He's brilliant.

Let's get on with our next presentation,

the BBC 999 Award for Coastal Rescue.

Back in January, Patrick Smart and Veronica Bower-Feek

were part of a crew of seven on a sailing trip off the Kent coast.

Sailing conditions were good to begin with but, as we all know,

the British weather is somewhat unpredictable, and before too long,

they were battling force 11 gales and nine metre high waves.

'..widespread gales, if not severe gales.'

Winds could get to 60, 70, maybe even 80 miles an hour.

The sea conditions were absolutely horrific.

And I genuinely did think at that time there was

a very good chance we were going to capsize.

Waves were the size of houses.

Nobody could control a boat like this in conditions like this.

At 5:40am, RNLI Dungeness was launched.

Conditions weren't good. We're talking gale force ten.

Five, six metre swells at times. Driving rain. It was really rough.

In the back of your mind, you're apprehensive.

You don't know what you're going to find.

You're readying yourself for any scenario, really.

When we found the vessel, straightaway,

things had already gone very wrong.

Their sails had been blown out and she was listing over quite heavily.

We knew that the crew on board were in danger.

Initially, he was making progress with his engine.

Within five minutes of this, the situation changed.

This wave came up behind us.

And it threw the helmsman against the helm.

We'd lost our power, we'd lost our steering,

we'd been hit by an extremely big wave

and the helmsman had been injured.

-Everybody was seasick.

-People do die in such circumstances.

One cabin member started to send text messages to her daughter saying goodbye.

It was absolutely a life or death situation,

without a shadow of a doubt.

The situation was critical.

Failing to attach a tow rope, they were left with no other choice.

Garry would have to jump aboard the yacht.

You know you've got to get it right.

Get it wrong, you'll go down between the two vessels.

You could well get crushed between the two.

The sea was so rough,

the two boats were of different heights from each other,

incredibly difficult.

We came along to the stern of him and Garry was all ready to go.

I was lying down below, extremely seasick, very cold,

probably hypothermic.

And this face appeared in the hatchway. And it was Garry.

And it was the best thing that could have happened

and I realised at that point that we were likely to survive.

But the crew weren't safe yet.

Garry still had to attach a tow rope to the yacht.

You had to hang on. You had to hang on for life.

There was a possibility I could have been washed overboard at any time.

It was a matter of watching the seas

and hanging on at the critical times to make sure you stayed on board,

but we managed to get the tow re-established.

In 25 years I've been on the lifeboat,

I think this is probably the most difficult

and dramatic rescue we've had to endure.

Being on this rescue makes you realise just how dangerous

the sea can be and it makes me extremely proud to be

part of the crew of Dungeness lifeboat

and part of the RNLI as a whole. Very proud indeed.

The best person I could have picked to go on that yacht was Garry.

And he done a tremendous job. Top man.

I don't think Garry even considered his own safety.

I think that he had a job to do and he knew he had a job to do

and he just did it.

I think it's more than likely that if Garry hadn't done

what he did, I wouldn't be alive today.

He's a lovely man, clearly very brave.

He did a fantastic job on that day and I owe him my life.

Please welcome the incredibly brave RNLI crewman Garry Clarke.

I tell you what, my heart was in my mouth watching that. Fantastic.

-Fantastic.

-And now to present Garry with his award,

please welcome reigning Strictly champion Harry Judd

and his fantastic co-finalist Chelsee Healey.

APPLAUSE

Congratulations, Garry.

You really are an inspirational man and it is an honour to meet you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Chelsee's right. Pleased to meet you, Garry.

I think what's even more remarkable is the fact that it's voluntary work.

Yeah, well, I enjoy it and I'm very proud to be part of the RNLI,

and I thoroughly enjoy doing it.

That's incredible and it's an honour to meet you. Thank you.

Garry, is there anything you'd like to say?

There's a lot of people, it's not just me,

there's 60-odd people that help run the Dungeness lifeboat and I'd really like to accept

this award on behalf of everybody there.

Please show your appreciation to Harry and Chelsee

and to our 999 Award winner Garry Clarke.

APPLAUSE

Now, our next Special Recognition Award

goes to a paramedic for the Welsh Ambulance Service, Giovanni Riva.

(ACCENT) That's right, isn't it, doesn't it look you go-go-goch.

During his 20 years as a paramedic, Giovanni has fathered 19 babies...

sorry, that's delivered 19...

Sorry, 19 babies in emergency situations. I'm so sorry, Kirsty.

I cannot believe you said that. Let's play the film, Lenny.

I never thought...

..ever thought to join the Ambulance Service or do first aid.

Far, far from it. When I was a kid, I just wanted to be a soldier.

Giovanni moved to Wales from Sardinia in 1983

and started working for the Ambulance Service two years later.

The nickname Babe Magnet, I think my colleagues use it as banter.

But, you know, I do enjoy it. I like the name.

Gio qualified as a paramedic in 1991

and became well known for one particular aspect of his job.

I delivered about 19 babies so far in my career.

And, at one time, I believe I was holding the record

of the most deliveries in Wales by a paramedic.

I've been in the job 32 years and I've delivered five.

One day, in a 12-hour period, I delivered three babies.

I perfectly remember at the end of that shift saying,

"If I get another baby again, I'm going to quit this job."

It's so stressful.

He's the only paramedic I know

that delivered so many children. He's the only paramedic I know

that wouldn't want to go to that job again.

Even at the start, you've got two lives on your hands.

One of the women who'll always be grateful to Gio

is Amanda James who, four years ago, went into labour at home.

All of a sudden, in the bathroom,

I realised this baby was going to be coming very soon.

So my husband ran downstairs. Straightaway, 999 and waited,

prayed they would get there in time, and, thankfully, someone did.

You're just walking in this house,

you're expecting to deliver a baby without knowing

if there's any previous problem.

He examined me and realised that the baby was actually breech.

She had turned. Very frightening for me, I had no idea whatsoever.

And it was very difficult.

But then he put his skills into practice and delivered the baby.

Gio reassured me that he could do it and that we would just

get on with it, which we did, and he was fantastic.

He's going to be a friend for life. He's Shona's guardian angel.

To me, he's definitely a hero.

He's the type of person that is knowledgeable and you know

that you've always got good backup when Giovanni is with you.

He should get special recognition for what he's put into the service, what he gives to the public,

and he doesn't expect anything back for it.

It's a commitment. It's a commitment to humanity

to make sure that the best possible treatment is given.

And Giovanni is that special person that fetches it to people.

You make a difference, you know. Lots of people say, "You save life."

And really, you do save lives sometimes. You actually help people.

He is a lovely guy, really friendly, does loads for charity.

And I'm really proud to call him my friend.

-KIRSTY:

-Extraordinary.

You've got to love him. Ladies and gentlemen, Giovanni Riva.

APPLAUSE

And to present Giovanni with his award, taking to the floor

are the strictly sensational

Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood!

Giovanni!

-Ciao. Come stai?

-Sei italiano.

-Si, si.

You know we have something in common.

-We're both Italian...

-Yes.

-We both can deliver...

LAUGHTER

In my case, it stops at pizza.

Maybe we should do something together. You do the baby, I do the catering.

I think there's an idea there, Craig, don't you think?

Yeah, I don't think so, Bruno.

Actually, you're a much better man than I, darling.

There's no way I could look at any of that mess.

LAUGHTER

It's the cleaning up. It's OK, it's the cleaning up.

Giovanni, do you want to say anything?

Just come to the microphone and take over for a second.

I'm really speechless.

That was the first time I've been speechless, really.

I'd really like to thank everybody for this award.

It's a big surprise to me.

What I do I do because I like it and I've done it for 27 years.

I hope to carry on for a long time.

-Look, thank you very much for this.

-Thank YOU very much.

Please show your thanks to Bruno and Craig, and the babe magnet, Giovanni.

APPLAUSE

Yeah.

As well as the thousands of paid-up members of the emergency services,

countless volunteers give up their free time every day

to help save lives.

The winner of the BBC 999 Award for a volunteer is a GP by day,

but spends the majority of his free time responding

to 999 calls as a volunteer medic.

So when he finishes his day job,

he's on-call to attend some of the most serious incidents in the county.

Basically, this guy never stops working.

He's already a hero in my book. But back in January,

he was part of a team called out to help a man with his arm

trapped in factory machinery.

Not only that, the casualty was 100 feet up.

SIRENS BLARE

When I arrived, it had been just over an hour.

Essentially, the patient's arm was trapped within a piece of machinery.

The gentleman had received multiple crush injuries of the bone,

tendons, ligaments, nerve endings.

The casualty was 56-year-old engineer and father of three

Robert Vine.

The doc had to go up to a 100 foot gantry. It was dark, it was dusty.

It was a scene out of a horror movie.

An injury like this can obviously be very dangerous.

And, certainly, if you leave it too long,

you start getting complications and can potentially be fatal.

We'd spent probably in excess of 45 minutes

trying to release the limb with no success.

With any form of crush injury, the tissues start to break down.

They release toxins which can be reabsorbed into the body.

The longer you leave someone, the sicker they're going to get.

It was quite tense.

We all wanted the patient out,

but we knew it was not going to be a quick rescue.

It became apparent that it wasn't...

it just wasn't going to be possible to do an extrication

in any timely fashion.

In order to save Robert, Dr Hickman was faced with

one of the toughest decisions of his life.

The decision to do an amputation just goes against human instincts

because we do everything we can to save life and limb.

That's what we're about. And you have to look at the whole picture

and think, this is the only option we've got here

and you have to be sure that's the only option.

The doctor worked with the paramedics to make sure that everything was sterile

around the casualty while he carried out his procedure.

What is complex is monitoring a patient in that situation,

looking after them, making sure they haven't got pain

and they're not conscious of what you're doing.

In the field, it's not the place you want to be performing an amputation.

I think from the doctor's point of view,

to make a life-changing decision like that takes some nerve.

And I think if he hadn't made it,

then there was every eventuality that the casualty could have died.

He's been fantastic.

And he's certainly someone to look up to in our organisation.

I just happened to be the person that was called on that day

and had to make that decision.

It wasn't an easy decision and it was in a difficult place.

And it wasn't just me. It was teamwork.

I was working with other people there.

Um...

I think what it does, though, is it shows the value of

not just me but others like me who do this kind of work around the country.

In my head, I thought I'd lost him.

I think it's down to Dr Hickman that I still have my dad.

And I think the fact he does this work as a volunteer

is pretty amazing.

Without him, who knows, perhaps he wouldn't be here today.

I would just like to say to Dr Hickman that I can't...

words won't explain it. I just can't say how I feel about him because...

as far as I'm concerned, I've still got my family because of him,

and I'm here.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dr James Hickman.

APPLAUSE

And to present James with his award, please welcome

lead singer of the Script, Danny O'Donoghue, and the lovely Amanda Byram.

APPLAUSE

Well done. There you go.

My goodness, well, this really is like a scene from a movie.

It's like you're the real-life Superman.

You know, you're the GP by day, the volunteer by night.

And you're quite easy on the eyeball, too, isn't he?

You even thought so.

-James got more female attention than I do, for God's sake.

-And that's a lot.

-Puts me to shame.

-Talk me through that moment,

because you've never done an amputation before.

What goes through your head at that moment in time?

It's not so much the doing it, it's the making the decision

that's difficult because it's something you can't come back from.

Um...

But you just fall back on your training

and have to think through, "What are my other options?" Well, I didn't have any.

I'm very grateful for this.

It's not so much the recognition for me,

but for all the other colleagues in SAVES and the other basic schemes around the country,

any one of whom could be here tonight, really. I'm very grateful.

Please show your thanks to Amanda and Danny,

but especially to our incredible volunteer, Dr James Hickman.

All of tonight's awards

have been nominated by the emergency services themselves

with our winners being selected by a panel of judges.

-That's with the exception of just one.

-Yeah.

Viewers of The One Show were invited to nominate members of the public

who have acted selflessly in an emergency situation.

Our eminent panel of judges heard all the stories,

but this one was the undisputed winner.

In April last year, Chloe was on her way to school.

She was approached on the street outside the school and attacked.

She was forced to the ground

and then subject of a repeated stabbing and assault.

Luckily, in this case, Ben Hudson, a local pupil at the school,

intervened in that attack and, in my opinion, saved Chloe's life that day.

I've nominated my nephew Ben

because I believe he was incredibly brave to intervene

in the events that happened on 1st April in saving Chloe.

I was going up the road towards the school.

Looked over and saw a guy on top of a Year 9 student.

And it looked like he was striking her.

I've been told I left the pavement and ran over and rugby tackled him.

And he had a knife.

I was on top of him trying to pin his hands down.

He went for me with a knife. And my hand got cut as a result.

Eventually, two teachers managed to come over and restrain him.

I looked at my hand. Covered in blood.

I didn't realise it was my blood.

I thought... I didn't know what had happened.

'Emergency, go ahead, caller, what's the emergency?'

I got a phone call saying, you need to come quickly,

there's been a major incident at

Ben's school and Ben's been hurt.

It's scary when you take a phone call like that and realise that

-something really serious has happened.

-In my opinion, Ben's a real true hero.

He didn't think for his own safety.

It was obvious to Ben at the time that Chloe was being stabbed.

The police don't encourage people to intervene in these incidents,

but without any thought for his own personal safety,

he went and tackled the offender.

Chloe was stabbed a number of times in the face and neck.

Her injuries were so severe that she was actually airlifted to hospital

because, at that stage, we were worried for her life.

I don't really remember thinking that I had to do something about it.

-It just kind of happened.

-We were just really

so proud of him that he'd stepped up

and done something that I think a lot of us

would hope we would do in that situation,

but until you're actually confronted with that situation, you don't know.

Enormous pride but also delighted that he was still in one piece.

Ben is really a true hero and, thankfully for him,

Chloe's alive today.

He believes that it just happened to be him that intervened,

and that he isn't anything, sort of, special.

But, actually, what he did WAS special

and I think does need to be recognised.

What a courageous young man. Please welcome Ben Hudson.

Of course, to present Ben with his award are The One Show's

very own Alex Jones and Matt Baker.

APPLAUSE

-Unbelievable.

-Congratulations. Can I have a kiss?

-Of course.

-Proper hero.

Well, listen, Ben, you are the youngest award-winner here tonight

by quite a few years, we won't go into numbers. But what do you make of all of this?

Um...I'm kind of really shocked when it all happened.

I never imagined that I'd ever be standing somewhere like this

in front of all these people and cameras

-and accepting really prestigious awards.

-Well, you are.

-You deserve to be here.

What do you remember, looking back at the incident?

We were just walking to school, as normal. I was playing Pokemon...

LAUGHTER

And...suddenly, everyone was...was running, screaming,

and I just looked over where it was all emanating from,

and saw what was going on.

I don't remember that much of what actually happened,

but I can remember running across the road

and jumping at the guy.

It's all a bit of a blur really.

I did what had to be done, what needed to be done and, thankfully,

-everything turned out all right.

-Incredibly courageous

and incredibly brave. Ben, well done.

-KIRSTY:

-Well done, Ben. Congratulations.

APPLAUSE

-Brave guy.

-Modest with it.

Now, every year, the UK's Fire and Rescue Service

deal with around about two million calls.

Everything from burning buildings to rescuing old ladies from up trees.

LAUGHTER

But one thing that is not in their training manual

is how to rescue passengers trapped in a hot air balloon

that has crashed into an electricity pylon with 132,000 volts running through it. 132,000 volts, Kirsty!

That's enough to grill 248,000 slices of toast both sides!

Imagine those people trapped in a wicker basket,

hundreds of feet off the ground, shouting, "Help, help!"

Lenny, Lenny, Lenny, Lenny, Lenny!

It really did happen, this.

Northamptonshire Line Rescue's Blue Watch

were confronted with exactly that scenario earlier this year.

-No way.

-Way.

In March 2012, Colin Giggle and two others were coming to the end

of a day trip in a hot air balloon in Northamptonshire.

What was looking like a very stable and normal approach to land

then got quite dramatic very quickly.

And, yeah, we ended up connecting with a 132,000 volt power line.

And we were just suspended at that point, thinking,

"This isn't going to be easy to get ourselves down from here."

A specialist rescue team would be needed.

Northamptonshire's Line Rescue team were called.

Nothing can really prepare you for going to an incident like this.

You know, a balloon trapped in a pylon is not an everyday occurrence.

It was decided we would lead the rescue.

We would be climbing the tower to effect a rescue

and get the people out of the basket.

OK, we have some skills we can utilise,

but it's looking at the scene and working out how you'll use these skills

in that environment. That was the hardest thing.

So that's where the nervousness comes into play.

You know, the fact that you're up high, I'm used to being up high.

The fact that I've got somebody's life in my hands

while I'm up high is an entirely new scenario to me, or was at the time.

Before Blue Watch could start climbing the pylon,

the power had to be switched off.

But by the time the area had been made safe, it was pitch-black.

It complicated everything, being dark and on a pylon.

It was also quite damp and moist that evening

cos it was quite a humid evening so the electricity pylon was slippy.

The earthing cables which the electricity board had applied

got in the way of the lines that we were hauling up.

There was also barbed wire to contend with.

There was also a possible risk of fire within the basket

cos they carry propane cylinders.

The fear is pushed aside. You focus on the task at hand.

We got to the top,

tied off the ropes on one of the stanchions above.

A fall from that height is going to be fatal, so you can't get it wrong.

We then set up what is called a cableway, which is almost like a zip line,

which goes at a 45 degree angle.

There was three casualties in the basket and each one of us

took a casualty.

You need to get it right when it's operational,

there's no room for error.

People's lives are at risk here, you know.

When you've got a chance to sit back and think about it afterwards,

you think, maybe that was a bit of a close one, or not.

But I'd definitely do it again.

It's what I get paid to do and it's what I enjoy doing.

I've been a firefighter for nine years.

I've never experienced anything on this scale before

or an incident of this type.

I've got guys on my watch who've been 25 years

and they've never experienced an incident like this before.

They'll be very proud to win this award.

Probably not as proud as they are of having carried out the rescue

because that's what they joined the Fire and Rescue Service to do.

We certainly used up one of our collective nine lives that day.

And not to push the cat in a tree analogy too far,

yeah, we owe those Line Rescue boys a lot

to get us down as they did and, yeah, well done.

Amazing stuff.

So amazing, we wanted to celebrate their heroism with a little treat

courtesy of rugby hero Matt Dawson.

The guys from Blue Watch are without doubt heroes.

Saving lives whilst wrestling with a hot air balloon

wrapped around an electricity pylon. It is incredible stuff.

What isn't incredible is the state of their fire station.

Especially the mess room.

What do you think, Matt?

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

It's...

It reminds me of a 1930s...care home.

Just such an exclusive games area.

Table and chairs, I suppose it will do.

But hardly inspiring, is it, really?

This is ripped.

I could take this thing apart.

We've got to do something about this.

So it's time to make their mess a little bit less of a mess.

Let's get cracking, then. Come on then, team.

Matt and the team have just eight hours to get the job done.

Hurry, hurry!

I haven't got a clue what I'm doing here.

This is fairly standard of my sporting career -

just stand there...and hold it.

So, dining room from the 1960s...

That table and chairs is gone and we've got a very up-to-date island.

Drawers, cupboards.

We don't even recognise this space

because now you've got fantastic carpet tiles,

you're going to have a massive TV screen.

Well done, everyone, doing a brilliant job,

but there is only one hour to go until Blue Watch are back on shift.

-Hello! How are we doing?

-Good, and yourself?

I am here on behalf of the BBC's 999 Awards.

You are just absolute heroes. We all know you're total heroes.

So it was about time we did something for you.

I've got a little something for you.

I want to show you something that I think you might just enjoy.

-Wow.

-No way!

Come in and see your new mess.

-No way!

-I think we'll probably have to change the name, really.

I tell you what, this fireman business ain't bad.

Hadn't got a clue. Not a clue.

I mean, this is...

pretty damn stunning, to be honest with you.

Wasn't anticipating what you can see behind me, that's for sure.

The favourite bit has got to be the huge TV

because my house just isn't big enough to have one of those myself

so to be able to watch ten minutes now and again at work

on one would be amazing.

Oh, it's fantastic. I'll enjoy coming into work a lot more from now on, I think.

I'll see you later, yeah?

HE WHOOPS

Get in there!

Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome Northampton Line Rescue team's Blue Watch.

I won't ask you about the colour scheme,

but how are you enjoying the new mess that's no longer a mess?

-It's very different to how it used to be.

-Different in a good way?

In a very good way.

Like Matt Dawson said, it was like an old people's home in there.

About the rescue, this is something you and your team

had never gone through before.

How did you know what to do? How did you approach it?

It's something we've trained to do before. It's nothing we've come across in the real world

before. So when it came up, we were ready to do the job,

so it actually came out all right in the end, so we were quite happy at the end.

Thank you very much and well done to you all. A brilliant job. Thank you.

APPLAUSE

As we've said earlier,

we can only honour a tiny number of emergency services heroes tonight.

So, here's John Hurt to introduce a few more messages of thanks.

We have already heard some astonishing stories

of bravery about our emergency services tonight.

And I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you

for your tireless dedication in making this country

a safer place for us all.

Of course, on a night like tonight,

we can only mention a fraction of the people we'd like to thank.

Here are a few more men and women to whom we are eternally grateful.

We salute you.

Jade Cousins went into labour at home and her partner dialled 999.

Ben Brown took the call and talked them through the delivery.

I want to say thank you to Ben

because even though he was on the phone,

it felt like he was in the room that night.

Michelle Walkey says thank you to paramedic Ian Pratt

who treated her seriously ill baby, Eliza Lily, en route to hospital.

Firefighter Simon Haston fell into the sea while fishing.

Darren Crowe and the St Abse RNLI crew responded to the 999 call.

I'm forever indebted to Dan for saving my life that day.

He put himself at risk to remove me from a risk. I owe him my life.

Joe Beaumont wants to thank Karen Green and her mountain rescue team

who rescued him when he suffered a broken leg from a 40 foot fall.

Kelly Clark will always appreciate the work of Dr Richard Lyons

and paramedic Jemma Varela

who saved the life of her three-year-old son, Kai.

PC Billy Pringle was on hand to help Steven Walker

when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

I can remember him saying, "You don't look good, Steven.

"You're going to hospital."

And I says, "Yeah, you'd better call an ambulance."

He said, "No, you're coming with me." Thank you, Billy.

Thank you for saving my life.

This year, it just happens to be the 75th anniversary

of the 999 telephone number.

Before 1937, if you had an emergency,

you had to run out into the street and go, "Help!

"I'm a student trapped inside an ironing board!"

But now when you pick up the phone and dial 999,

you're asked which service you require and then you're connected to the relevant one.

And the operators have no idea what's in store for them.

Well, our next award is for a 999 operator.

This, I have to tell you,

is a difficult story which had life-threatening consequences,

but we felt it was important that it was told.

In March this year, emergency operator Lisa Harrison

answered a call that she will surely never forget.

A father had dialled 999 after finding his one-year-old son,

Mylo, face down in their garden pond.

Mylo was unresponsive and his father was desperate.

The 999 call you are about to hear

is the actual one that took place that day.

He was unconscious

and not breathing, no pulse.

There was no-one there who could help me.

'The back door was opened. And I found him drowned in the pool.'

-'Which child in the pool?'

-'My son.'

-'Your son?'

-'Yes.'

'OK, we're getting some help out. I need to gather

'some more information so that I can help you to help him.

'I need to ring his mum.'

'No. Are you with him now?'

This man called and he'd found his son in water,

got him out of the water,

and as far as he was concerned, he wasn't breathing.

I heard the fear, the anxiety,

the terror in his voice straightaway.

-'He's not breathing.'

-'How old is he? How old is he?'

-'He's one.'

-'He's one?'

He was cold.

Um...

No colour to his skin. No colour to his eyes.

He wasn't breathing. There was no pulse.

-'Please help...'

-'Is he awake?'

-'No, his eyes...'

-'Is he breathing? No?'

-'He's not breathing.'

My heart starts beating fast and I'm thinking... "Oh, my God."

His little boy's drowned and he's not breathing.

Take some deep breaths and think, "Right, focus, focus.

"We've got to help him."

'You need to hold yourself together and try and help him.

'Together we are going to help him.

'You must listen to me and keep calm, OK?'

I knew I had to calm Dad down and get him carrying out

CPR as soon as I could.

'Listen carefully, I'll tell you how to do resuscitation.

'Place the heel of your hand on the breastbone

'in the centre of his chest.'

You see on films and, you know, they give them resuscitation,

and they cough out the water and then they're all fine,

but that's fiction. That's not real life.

And, obviously, things like that you tend to believe.

'You give two regular breaths

'then pump the chest 30 more times, OK?'

-'OK, I'm doing it, but...'

-'Listen to me,

'you need to calm down so we can continue to help him.

'OK? I'll tell you exactly what to do next.'

He kept trying to do the CPR and nothing was happening.

And he wanted to give up.

I...

literally felt there was no hope. I thought he was dead.

'I can't believe this.'

'Just keep doing what I've asked you to do, please.'

There was no response from him.

I just thought, "Why isn't he breathing?

"We're doing what we should, why isn't he breathing?"

Like, I just wanted to scream and cry.

I had given up on him

although I obviously didn't let that come across to his dad.

My voice broke.

And I cried, yeah.

I was sad, because I thought he'd died.

Despite fearing the worst,

Lisa stayed on the line with Andrew for 17 minutes.

Her clear instruction ensured that baby Mylo received enough oxygen

to be revived by the paramedics.

The whole weekend, erm...was blurred by it. You know, it was...

And then I came in on the Monday morning

and the paramedic team leader's wife from the helimed

told me that in actual fact, he had survived and he was in Nottingham

and was hopefully going to make quite a good recovery.

And I was absolutely elated.

On that day, Lisa remained so focused.

Nothing around the room distracted her. She knew what she had to do.

And she did exactly what she had to do for that family

and that little boy.

Before I was on the phone with the operator, I felt as if me and Mylo

were the only two people in the world.

As soon as I was on the phone with her,

it was as if she was standing right next to me, helping me,

and giving me all the support I needed

to be able to do what I needed to.

I will always remember the call. Calls like this do stay with you.