A GOOD Samaritan has been praised for helping save someone’s life by helping an organ transplant team get to the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
The team were travelling to the hospital to retrieve a kidney when a tyre on the vehicle exploded, forcing them to pull over.
Steve Bamber, 51, of Pinewood Drive, Accrington, and his son Christopher, 23, saw the vehicle pull on to the hard shoulder and stopped to see if there was anything they could do.
Steve, who is the managing director of Townsend Records, said: "We were driving on the M65 on our way back from Chorley and a car with blue flashing lights shot past us.
"The back tyre exploded about 200 yards in front of us and they pulled across onto the hard shoulder.
"I thought it looked like they were on an important call so I pulled over to see if I could lend a hand. They wouldn’t have had their light on and been zipping along for nothing.
"We put some medical storage equipment in the car, along with the consultant and his team, and took them to the hospital. We then came back to help with the medical vehicle. We were only about three miles before the turn-off for the hospital."
After a week’s holiday, Steve returned home to find a letter from the consultant thanking him for his help.
Mr Afshin Tavakoli, consultant in renal transplantation at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said: "The gentleman was fantastic and very helpful. He stopped as soon as the tyre blew and offered any help that he could. I told him we were on an emergency retrieval and he took all three of us – me, my registrar and my scrub nurse – plus all of our equipment all the way to Blackburn.
"Not only did he do all this but he then went back and helped our driver to change his tyre.
"I thanked him personally, but on behalf of the renal transplant unit and the driver we would like to send a huge thank-you."
