An Asda delivery driver has been hailed as a "hero without a cape" after helping to save a man's live while on duty in Whitley Bay.
Simon Deniel, 50, of Amble, was doing his rounds on Lovaine Avenue on Thursday April 6 when he came across a woman in distress who flagged him down in the street. That woman was Elizabeth Storey, whose husband James, had had a heart attack in their home.
On entering the couple's house, Simon found James slumped in a chair but with a combination of first aid training from "years ago" and being talked through what to do by an ambulance call handler, the quick-thinking deliveryman performed CPR on James. Once he'd started breathing again, Simon waited until the ambulance arrived, keeping Elizabeth calm until her husband was "in the best hands".
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Simon, who works at the Blyth Asda store, told ChronicleLive: "I was on the way to one of my deliveries and there was a lady who looked exceptionally stressed and upset waving at me as I was driving down the road. She was in her pyjamas, and it's not the sort of thing you usually see on the street so I stopped the van, put the window down and she asked me if I could help her with her husband, that's all I got at that point."
"I went into the house with her and her husband was in the armchair at that point unconscious, he wasn't breathing. Thankfully, she had the ambulance call handler on the phone, that was very helpful.
"We managed to get him down onto the floor and I started CPR. After a little bit he took his first breath again, which was a bit gargly, but then some regular breathing returned but was very shallow at that point.
"We put him into the recovery position and then it was about keeping the wife calm and talking to her until the ambulance arrived, which wasn't too long. Once the paramedic and ambulance crew arrived, I just stood to the side and let them do their jobs."
Reflecting on the life-saving incident, Simon said: "It wasn't something I was expecting! You never know how you're going to react in a situation like that but I didn't think anything of it at the time.
The ex-military man carried on with his shift as normal and said it wasn't until he'd posted on an Asda colleagues Facebook page that what he'd done started to sink in. Simon continued: "I thought it was a nice story and it absolutely blew up on there.
"It had so, so many comments, more than 100 saying well done and that a lot of people would have driven past. It's up to 1,000 likes and I still can't really fathom the response.
"I'd like to think that everyone would do the same, but from a lot of comments that people have put, a lot would have been too scared or worried and wouldn't have been able to do it. At the time, I didn't think I'd done anything amazing!"
Simon found out that James had been discharged from hospital on Sunday after his daughter Michelle issued a plea to find the heroic driver on Facebook. The family are hoping to meet up with Simon soon so that James can thank the man who saved his life.
Michelle Osborne told ChronicleLive: "Without Simon’s fast acting intervention my father wouldn’t be with us now. Simon then went on to finish his delivery round to make sure everyone got their shopping for the Bank holiday weekend.
"Simon is a true local hero, going above and beyond that extra mile for two random strangers. My family and I will be eternally grateful to Simon, our super hero without a cape!"
Emma Williamson, the store's operations manager, said everyone at the store was so proud of Simon.
"What Simon did was absolutely amazing and he's very humble about it too. We are so proud of him. Thankfully, the gentleman is stable in hospital. He’s up and talking but they’re running tests just to see what caused it. The hospital have said five more minutes and the guy would have died.
"Simon is getting lots of lovely comments and they are very well deserved. I'm not sure how he managed to go on and complete the rest of his deliveries to be honest. We told him to come back to store and we would get someone else to take them back, but he just said he was already out so may as well finish them off. Amazing!”
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