Heroic Brian McKenzie has told how he saved someone from drowning – for the second time.
The 53-year-old leapt into action after spotting a woman in distress in the Caledonian Canal in Inverness while walking his dog.
She had been trying to reach her own collie dog, which had fallen into the water.
Brian – who rescued a man from the same canal in September 2017 – said: “You just go into auto-pilot. I put the life preserver down first but she kept slipping out of it.
“She went under three times I think – she was struggling.
“She was about 6ft from me and I hung on to the canal lock gate and stretched my arm to reach her.
"She was a dead weight. I was struggling and cried out for help. A lad came over and I told him I had her. I had her arm and I wasn’t going to let go. I wasn’t going to let her slip under again.
“If she had, it wouldn’t have been a good outcome. We got her on to the bank at the side of the lock. I was worried about her old collie.
“She was panicking, swimming about and going under the water, too. We got her at the ladder half way down the next lock.”
Brian said the woman was suffering from hypothermia and was going in and out of consciousness. He added: “I put a jacket over her and we took her to the taxi office across the road.
“Once the ambulance arrived, I went home.”
The woman suffered a broken arm. Her dog was fine. She contacted Brian to thank him but wishes to remain anonymous.
Brian added: “It seems like it all happened in slow motion. It was scary. I wasn’t even supposed to be there but for some reason I took my dog Mylo to the canal lock.
“I just wish I was so lucky with the lottery.”
