Let me start this blog post with a sort of qoute – one passed through the ages of unlucky people. It simply states: “whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way”.Normally everywhere I go I have a bag on my back and inside it I have a video camera, a DSLR, an audio recording device and a notebook (paper variety).
The reason for this is – you never know when you’ll be in the middle of a story – and so far I’ve NEVER been in the middle or even on the edges of a story.
Until yesterday – I decided to spend my lunchbreak sitting on the beach and as the beach is only down the road from the office and it was a very hot day I decided not to take my bag.
After all – what’s going to happen on the beach on a hot sunny afternoon in May.
Damn sod and his law.
Right in front of my eyes I see a young lad run into the sea to help a bloke lying face down – he was then joined by other people who all eventually pulled the man out.
Minutes later a paramedic arrives followed by an ambulance which was then followed by a police car. Ten minutes after that the ambulance leaves with the man in the back.
Getting back to the office and seeing the police report come in – it turns out the man had had a heart attack in the water and that the young lad had probably saved his life.
The actual story at the time was pretty vague – it didn’t tell the story of the teenager just that somebody went into the water to pull the man out.
We then recieved an e-mail from the boys father the next day to explain what happened in detail.
The story, as published right now says that Marc Carcel waded into the water at West Park, St Aubin’s Bay, Jersey, to reach the 45-year-old man.
The teenager found him lying face down in the water and called a friend to help him pull the casualty back to the safety of the shore.
Mr Carcel senior said his son was not a strong swimmer but he went to help the man because nobody else would and that an ambulance crew managed to revive the swimmer and he was taken to hospital.
Unfortunately the man hasn’t regained consciousness yet but it’s brilliant that someone, a teenager of all groups, would show such heroics in an area of ‘not wanting to get involved’.
Incidentally – I was too far away to get involved – was watching from a bit of a distance but have asked myself whether I would and the VERY sad answer is that I would probably wait for someone else to and then take photos.
Unfortunately in this instance I HAD NO CAMERA – not even a mobile phone camera (battery was dead) and so have no photos of the heroics taking place.
I’m now under the promise of a slap from the BBC News Online journo writing the story next time she sees me after confessing I was standing there with no camera watching it all happen.
So let that be a lesson to you – carry a camera (of some kind) with you everywhere you go – oh and to those standing there WITH cameras – can we borrow a picture?
Ryan Morrison is a geek, journalist and someone obsess with media, technology and geek culture. He writes for the BBC in Jersey on any subject that falls on his desk and presents a show about the islands music scene. He has been blogging for six years.