A heroic pub landlord scaled a drainpipe to rescue a woman who was contemplating throwing herself from a hotel ledge.
Paul Walker, 37, was walking from his pub, the Queen’s Head, in Burslem, Staffordshire, to get some change when he saw a PCSO running towards the George Hotel.
Paul then spotted a lady standing on a 30cm wide ledge on the top floor of the hotel.
The father-of-two stayed and talked to her for around two hours before heading up the drainpipe to get her to safety on Saturday afternoon.
Selfless 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.”
Anyone seeking help for issues like the ones raised in this article can call the Samaritans for confidential support.
Trained advisors are there ready to be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123.
