A BRAVE pensioner plunged into freezing flood waters to save a drowning woman.

When John McKeon saw an elderly woman face-up in an icy stream he did not hesitate, wading into waist-high water and battling treacherous undercurrents to rescue her.

Mr McKeon, aged 70, of Poplar Avenue, Wyre Piddle, Pershore, was recovering from pneumonia at the time but kept a tight grip on the 74-year-old women who would otherwise have been swept into the Avon to her death.

He will now be awarded a testimonial on parchment by the Royal Humane Society after his daring rescue at the stream near Pershore Town Football Club on Saturday, January 6.

Mr McKeon and wife Yvonne had been walking their black labrador, Biddy, when they noticed an umbrella and some clothes folded over a bridge crossing a stream.

Below them was the body of an elderly woman, face-up in the water. Mr McKeon said: "Her eyes were closed but I saw a few bubbles coming from her mouth.

"She was alive. I jumped in and grabbed her and lifted her out of the water. It was up to my waist.

"There was no way I could lift her on to the bank - it was too muddy. There was no way I could physically get out.

"In another half-a-minute she would have been swept into the main stream and would have gone. I was trying to talk to her, saying to her "you will be all right, we will have you out in a minute".

"I was aching. I thought I was going to have to release her at one stage. She was sodden wet and heavy."

Mr McKeon spent 10 minutes in the freezing stream, holding the women's body out of the water, while his wife fetched groundsmen from the football club who were able to pull him and the woman to safety.

Once out of the water, Mrs McKeon wrapped her in a wax jacket until the County Air Ambulance arrived.

Mrs McKeon said: "He was in the water before I could discuss with him whether he should or not. He thought of nothing except reaching her. I'm proud of him. It was like we were meant to be there."

The Royal Humane Society's secretary Colonel Adrian Gilbert said: "He had no thought for his own safety and health as he waded in to the bitterly cold and dangerous waters, only thinking of this woman he had never met."

But Mr KcKeon does not think his actions showed anything out of the ordinary. He added: "I did what anybody would have done."

The woman was taken to intensive care where she made a full recovery.

No date has been scheduled for presentation of the award which follows a recommendation from West Mercia Police.