An Aberdeen mum has praised a “gem of a guy” for helping her daughter who was stuck in mud searching for tadpoles.
Donna Sim, 41, had taken her five daughters – Mary-Jane, 12, Hannah, 11, Skye, 9, Summer, 7 and Rhianna, 4 – to Woodend pond to search for tadpoles on Monday evening when one of them became stuck in the water.
The family had been out walking around the nature reserve before trying to find tadpoles when it started getting darker.
Hannah had been told that if she searched the long grass in the pond she would find tadpoles.
“Before we knew it her feet started sinking and the water started to rise”
Ms Sim said: “Before we knew it her feet started sinking and the water started to rise, it was just up past her knees and she was hysterical.”
The worried mum had not taken her phone with her and there was no one around to ask for help.
She said: “I had another four kids with me, and one is partially sighted and one has got learning difficulties so I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t let their hands go because I was scared they would fall into the water.”
Hero rushes over to help
She sent two of her daughters, Skye and Mary-Jane to go back to Bressay Brae where they had parked their car to knock on someone’s door to ask them to call the fire brigade.
The girls managed to knock on someone’s door and asked them to phone 999, but instead he left his house and ran to the pond to help.
Ms Sim said: “Skye and Mary-Jane came running towards me with a young guy, he’d run out of his house rather than phoning the fire brigade. He went to go get the rubber ring but he didn’t need it because he actually went into the water, and almost fell a few times himself to get to her, and managed to get her out the mud.
“I have never been so scared in my entire life because the more she was standing the more her feet were sinking, and I thought ‘oh my God, my bairn’s going to drown!’ it was absolutely horrendous.”
The 11-year-old girl had been so deep in the mud that when she was pulled to safety her new trainers were stuck and could not be retrieved.
Ms Sim explained there are no signs warning about the long grass or swamp, which is why her daughter ventured out so far thinking it was safe.
The mum added: “What an absolute gem of a guy, not a lot of people would have helped. I can’t thank him enough.”