One Newport woman found herself in the middle of a rescue mission this weekend, after getting stuck in the middle of a muddy field.
Jenny Hancock, 81, from Allt-yr-Yn embarked on her usual walk with labradoodle Milly on the morning of Saturday, December 27.
This walk took a short detour along the towpath of the Mon and Brec canal and toward the fields on the Sirhowy Valley Walk. This route isn’t a stranger to many a dogwalker at all times of the year but after Mrs Hancock walked across the expanse and toward the Ridgeway Café where husband Tim, 82, was waiting, she realised why there was a lack of people undertaking the same route.
After carrying on across the field, Mrs Hancock found herself in a muddy patch that quickly took her up to her waist in mud and unable to move.
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After a brief panic and some shouting, Mrs Hancock phoned the Ridgeway Café who relayed to Mr Hancock that his wife was waist deep in mud in the nearby field and that he would need “a couple of strong fellas” to help get her out.
Luckily, the local Short Strides Running Club had just finished their run and were more than willing to quickly become Short Strides Rescue Club help Mr Hancock free his wife.
Two members, Joshua Davies-Box and Callum Watkins, sprung into action.
“They were so on it, you’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mrs Hancock.
The duo disregarded their “posh trainers” and got a board so that they could assist in pulling Mrs Hancock from the mud safely, without sinking in themselves.
All the while, Claudia from the Ridgeway Café stayed on the other end of the phone to reassure Mrs Hancock that help was on its way and that she had to reason to be worried.
After successfully being freed from the mud, the Hancocks and their rescuers made their way back to the café where coffees were handed out as a gesture of goodwill – all before Mrs Hancock made her way back home for a “bath up to [her] chin and a glass of wine”.
Mrs Hancock said: “It’s awful when you’re shouting for help and there’s nobody around. I’ve never felt like that before.”
The heroics of those around them on Saturday are not lost on the couple, who have donated to Short Strides running club and have taken sweets to the Ridgeway Café in thanks.
What was a terrifying ordeal has shown the community how people can come together, and give unlikely “new friends for life”.
