Lifesaving duo rescued woman after she fell in canal

Quick-thinking heroes saved the life of a cyclist in a dramatic water rescue after she fell into a canal.
Cyclist Helen Wheeldon with her boyfriend Steve Birkinshaw Picture ref: AB267a0716Cyclist Helen Wheeldon with her boyfriend Steve Birkinshaw Picture ref: AB267a0716
Cyclist Helen Wheeldon with her boyfriend Steve Birkinshaw Picture ref: AB267a0716

Helen Wheeldon was cycling with her partner Steve Birkinshaw along a tow-path in Horbury before her bike hit a pothole.

The impact jolted the 43-year-old, who is not a confident swimmer, off her bike and flung her into, and under, the water in the canal near Horbury Bridge on July 1.

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But she was saved after Mr Birkinshaw, 59, and a mystery man , who was just passing, managed to pull her from the water using a dog lead.

Miss Wheeldon, from Horbury, said: “If it wasn’t for Steve and the other man I definitely wouldn’t be here. I hit a pothole then the next thing I knew I was in the water, I had gone underneath and I remember touching the bottom.

“I was too far from the bank to reach it when I came to the surface and I was panicking.”

After Miss Wheeldon fell into the water, Mr Birkinshaw first tried to rescue her using a bike lock.

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Mr Birkinshaw said: “She was just too slippy to pull out with my hands, so I used the bike lock to put more body weight behind it but I couldn’t get her out.”

That was when he called the emergency services, who arrived within 10 minutes armed with a winch.

But just minutes before they got there, a man walking his dog heard Miss Wheeldon’s cries.

He used the dog’s lead to wrap around her and together the pair pulled her out of the canal.

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Miss Wheeldon added: “It couldn’t have been done without him, it needed both of them and I want to say thank you. I was in shock afterwards and couldn’t believe that I had fallen it.”

The couple are now hoping to learn the identity of the man so they can thank him.