A dad-of-two dubbed the ‘real life spiderman’ scaled a 50ft fairground attraction to save a terrified little boy who had become trapped at the top. Jason Baird, 36, said he'd leapt to the aid of the panicking child after noticing him almost fall off the open-sided helter-skelter slide.
The 16-time karate world champion got the name ‘The Stockport Spiderman’ after he completed three marathons in 24 hours dressed as the superhero during lockdown. And he put his skills to use when he saw the boy “holding on for dear life”, while his mum shrieked: “He's going to fall!”
Jason, who was on a family day out at the time, charged up the front of the slide to reach the boy before staff had recognised his impending danger. Jason then brought the “hysterical” child back down to the bottom, where his relieved mum thanked him warmly with a kiss.
He said: “Anyone would have done it, and in that situation, when people are dangling from a building, someone’s got to go up – and it was just a case of ‘I’m going!’ But I’ve not stopped thinking about the lad since and what potentially could have happened to him.
“I couldn’t have seen the kid fall. It would have stayed with me for my life. But for me, there were no second thoughts.”
Jason said he was with his two kids, aged three and seven, at Geronimo festival at Arley Hall, Cheshire, when the drama began to unfold. He explained: “I was standing with a friend and pushing an empty pram when we noticed on the helter-skelter ride there was a little boy standing at the top.
“As soon as we saw him, we both started panicking. He’d come down six or seven feet, but he looked as though he was trying to climb up. Jason said he’d briefly checked to see if anyone had seen the stricken kid.
But after waiting a matter of seconds, he took things into his own hands by charging up the front of the slide to reach him. He said: “I literally ran over with the pram, threw my drink and money on the floor, and went up the slide to go and get him.
“As I took my first step on the slide, I saw the mother pointing up, shouting “My son’s up there, he’s going to fall, can you help me son!”
“The guy who was running the ride went up the stairs. But he would never have got to the top as there were too many kids queuing up. I must have got there in ten seconds, I literally flew right up. There was a girl that was coming down, and she bumped into him, and this little lad was holding on for dear life.”
Jason said he was initially forced to hold the boy over the edge of the slide as he fought to bring him safely back to the bottom. He said: “I had to pick him up and bring him round. I was holding on with one hand, and there was one time when he was literally dangling over the side.
“I put him on my lap, and he was in hysterics, crying, but I got him to put his hands up in the air and told him, “We’re going to enjoy it!” and was shouting “Wee!” He was still crying when he got to the bottom, but his mum was there, and I passed him over. She then grabbed my face and gave me a big kiss."
Jason said onlookers were also quick to congratulate him, but the humble dad felt anyone would have done the same thing. “People round the sides were saying ‘well done!’ and ‘good job you were here’.
“But it happened so quickly, and to me it was nothing. Anyone would have done the exact same thing, but it was just I was the first person to take the initiative and run up the slide.”
In the past, the martial arts instructor, who suffers from asthma, raised over £100,000 while running in his signature spiderman outfit.
Geronimo Festival has been contacted for comment.
