A heroic pub landlord scaled a drainpipe to stop a distressed woman jumping off a hotel ledge.
Paul Walker saw Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) rushing to the George Hotel in Stoke-on-Trent and decided to act.
He soon earned his heroic tag when he stopped and chatted to the woman for two hours about why she should live and his own struggles with mental health.
Then, he scaled the drainpipe to go and rescue her, reports Stoke-on-Trent Live.
Dad-of-two Paul said: “I saw a PCSO running to the George Hotel. I have a good relationship with the PCSOs, so I went over to see if he needed a hand and then I saw the lady standing on a ridge.
"I tried to talk her down and got into a conversation with her, where I told her that I suffer with mental health as I have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from being in the Army.
“Then the police came and cordoned the street off and there were about 10 police officers and four police cars there. The police let me stay.”
“The police went into one of the rooms of the hotel and were talking to her through the window. They were brilliant. They tried to talk her down.”
By then, a crowd had gathered in the street and the woman was becoming more distressed as some people were filming her.
“She was looking unstable on the ridge and kept turning around and I thought she was going to jump,” added Paul. “I went inside to the receptionist at the hotel and asked them to put mattresses outside so, if she fell, she didn’t do that much damage.
“Towards the end, she started moving along the ridge towards the drainpipe, but I was worried she was going to slip.
“I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I managed to get all 18 stone of me from the floor to the top of the drainpipe in seconds.
“I went to the lady and gave her to the police.
“The policeman shook my hand, congratulated me and said thank you and then they took it over. The police did amazingly.”
The woman was handed over to the care of paramedics. Paul says he hopes she is now getting the help she needs.
“She looked very frail and like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders,” he added. “She was very, very upset and, when she came down, she was crying. One of my friends committed suicide and I only went to his funeral on Wednesday and I just wanted to help her. It was clearly a cry for help.
“It was a shock to see her standing there and very distressing. I’ve been left covered in scrapes from scaling the drainpipe.”
