EXCLUSIVE Lucky to be alive: The ex-mayor trapped face-down for FIVE DAYS behind a football club pavilion after taking a short cut on his way to a train station
- Former mayor Chris Cummins, 75, was trapped behind a football club pavilion
- He was trapped face down for five days after falling on a walk to train station
When former mayor Chris Cummins took a shortcut on his walk to the train station, he didn’t know it would lead to a fight for survival.
In an attempt to avoid climbing a hill, the 75-year-old ended up spending five days trapped face down behind a football club pavilion, fearing the worst.
Mr Cummins’ ordeal began in February when he tried to squeeze through a wire fence at the back of non-league Redbridge FC’s Oakside Stadium.
But instead he became wedged on the ground as he tried to crawl underneath a pipe.
And from Tuesday through to Saturday he was stuck there with no food and water as temperatures dipped below zero. His only solace was prayer as he weakly called for help.
Fom Tuesday through to Saturday, Mr Cummins was stuck there with no food and water as temperatures dipped below zero. His only solace was prayer as he weakly called for help.
None came until the fifth day, when football club manager Richard ‘Ricky’ Eaton and three colleagues heard Mr Cummins, and came to his aid. Mr Eaton gave him some water with a straw, as an air ambulance, paramedics and firemen raced to the scene to cut him free.
Four months on, after having all the toes amputated on his left foot, Mr Cummins is well enough to tell the tale and return home. The former mayor of Redbridge in east London and a keen churchgoer, said: ‘I was probably incredibly foolish. As I lay there, I prayed – that’s all I could do. Ricky and the others saved my life. I’ll be a bit more careful in future.’
The astonishing tale of suburban survival by the former Department of Trade and Industry civil servant began on the last day of February.
The previous day, he had attended a memorial service for a fellow Conservative on the council. He mislaid his phone so returned to the crematorium and funeral parlour seeking it in vain.
As he set off home to a flat in nearby Wanstead, he fatefully went off-piste. He thought there might be a shortcut through the Redbridge FC ground to Barkingside Tube station, its platforms 50 feet behind the clubhouse.
Mr Cummins’ ordeal began in February when he tried to squeeze through a wire fence at the back of non-league Redbridge FC’s Oakside Stadium
Most would have turned back upon seeing the narrow gap between the back of the building and the sturdy wire fence of the Tube. Not Mr Cummins. He said: ‘I had to edge along sideways. Then I started crawling. But then I came to some sort of pipe low down. When I tried to crawl under it, I got stuck and couldn’t move.’
After two months in hospital and still recuperating in a care home with his bible by his side, Mr Cummins, added: ‘I was wearing trousers, a shirt, a jumper, and a sort of cagoule. I had no phone and no food or water.
‘While I was lying down, on my front but slightly to one side, all I could do was shout for help – ‘Help, I’m stuck, and I’ve lost my mobile’ – and pray. Sometimes it was the Lord’s Prayer. Mostly it was, ‘Please God, help me get out of here’. I might have put my hands together, I don’t know.
‘I fell asleep sometimes, using my right arm as a pillow, but could follow the time by activity at the station – the trains stopping at night and restarting in the morning, and the announcements, hundreds of times. I couldn’t hear any human voices. When Ricky finally arrived, I said, ‘Thank God you’ve come’.’
The former mayor escaped remarkably unscathed as the multiple toe amputation was for a previously undiagnosed issue. He was due to return home yesterday, now using a walking frame
Mr Cummins said he escaped remarkably unscathed – as the multiple toe amputation was for a previously undiagnosed issue. He was due to return home yesterday, now using a walking frame.
He added: ‘Although it was February, then March, it was dry and it wasn’t as cold. And I didn’t feel too thirsty, just the saliva from swallowing kept me going.’
Mr Eaton has launched an online appeal for cash donations for Mr Cummins on the GoFundMe website to help him back to full health.
He said: ‘Chris was heard calling out on the Thursday evening during a night training session by one individual who stopped and shouted out but could not hear any response.
‘We found Chris in a terrible position face down in the dirt. I will never forget the moment we found him and the pure joy in his voice. I remember Chris asking if I was an angel and the relief on his face was overwhelming for us all. Emergency services said it was very unlikely he would have survived another night.’
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