A Fife teenager is being hailed a hero after helping to save a youngster stranded up to his waist in mud at a Fife beauty spot.
The quick thinking of cyclist Rhys Fotheringham, 18, averted almost certain tragedy after he answered the desperate cries of a boy trapped at a remote part of Lochore Meadows Country Park on Wednesday night.
Rhys was just a short distance from his home in Kelty when he stopped shortly after 9pm at one of the park’s bird watching hives to have a drink after exercising on his new bike around the park.
It was only then that he heard the frantic calls for help.
“At first I could only hear the boy screaming for help but had no idea where they were coming from,” Rhys explained.
“I went around some bushes and eventually found the lad about 40 feet away stuck up to his waist in mud.
“He was obviously glad to see me and my first thought was just how he’d got into such a situation so far out from safety.”
Rhys said: “I tried to reach him with a branch but I just couldn’t find anything long enough so I called 999 to raise the alarm.
“I stayed with him trying to reassure him that help was coming and then I went to meet the fire crew at the entrance of the park in order to direct them to the secluded spot where the boy was stranded.
“Fire engines and police arrived within minutes and then firefighters took over throwing a rope out to him but that didn’t work.
“I stayed until 10.30pm but then had to go as I had work in the morning.”
Crews from Scottish Fire and Rescue’s specialist water rescue teams were scrambled from Glenrothes and Perth eventually pulled the 14-year-old to safety using rescue path equipment at round 11pm.
Now Rhys’ calm reactions in an emergency have been hailed for averting an almost certain tragedy.
Councillor Lea McClelland, whose Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty constituency the country park sits, praised Rhys adding that it was his quick thinking that probably saved the life of the boy.
She added: “It’s so lucky he was passing when he did, he’s certainly the hero in all of this.”
Asked what he thought about being called a hero, Rhys, an apprentice mechanical engineer at Octagonal Specialist Engineering in Glenrothes, said he only tried to do what anyone else would have done in the same situation.
He added: “I only got the new bike two weeks ago and had only stopped to have a quick drink of water as I was nearly home.
“There was nobody else about by that time and looking back it was just lucky that I stopped where and when I did otherwise who knows what might have happened to the boy.”
