Alert site foreman praised for saving mother after collapse

Sarah Clarke, 31, was taking her five-year-old daughter Sophie to the breakfast club at Howard Park Community School, Cleckheaton, when she collapsed owing to an existing heart condition.

As she lay unconscious, Roger Greenwood, a site foreman on a flood prevention scheme nearby, sprang to her aid.

The 58-year-old administered first aid and called an ambulance saving the mother’s life.

Ms Clarke said: “I have a heart condition called Potts Syndrome which means that my blood pressure and heart rate cannot regulate themselves.

“I had not had the best night’s sleep and wasn’t feeling well. It does happen like that sometimes, it just hits me and I drop to the floor. Sometimes there is a warning but at other times I don’t see it coming.

“I am so grateful for what he did. I took Sophie to the site and she gave him a card she made and some chocolates.

“Now, whenever she sees him, she waves and calls him Uncle Roger.”

Mr Greenwood said: “When I saw Sarah drop to the ground, I was just doing what anyone else would do by going over to help her.

“I could see she had gone a bit blue and was having difficulty breathing, so I cleared her airways and put her in the recovery position.

“The little girl was shivering and frightened so I wrapped her up in a coat while we called for an ambulance.sit

“I don’t feel like a hero, I hope it’s just what anyone else would have done.”

He then dropped Sophie at school, while Ms Clarke was taken to a hospital in Dewsbury where she was released later that day.

Mr Greenwood, who works for engineering specialists Barhale WSP, a Yorkshire Water contract partner, has since been presented with a voucher from Yorkshire Water to recognise his quick-thinking and was also reunited with mother and daughter.

He is part of a team helping Yorkshire Water install a huge £2.3m underground waste water storage tank capable of holding two million litres of water.

Once finished, the new unit will help to protect almost 40 properties in Cleckheaton.