A GRATEFUL grandmother who broke her wrist in a nasty fall wants to thank the Good Samaritans who went above and beyond to help her in her moment of need.

Linda Knivett was playing with her grandchildren when she fell in Priory Park in Malvern, suffering a head injury and a broken wrist on Friday (August 11), leaving her in both shock and excruciating pain.

The 72-year-old suffered the fall while playing football with her grandchildren, falling backwards onto her head, which struck the pavement, and breaking her left wrist which she put out to stop her fall.

Keith, the manager at the restaurant at Malvern Theatres, his assistant Matt and Lexi from the booking office between them supplied ice to bring the swelling down and brought more when that ran out, a parasol to keep the sun off her and plenty of emotional support. Malvern Theatres has named the helpful trio as Keith McCabe, Matt Dalley and Alexis Annis.

Mrs Knivett said: "They were just so helpful and so reassuring. I was surprised because people were walking past asking if there was anything they could do to help.

"What was really good was there was a first aider at the restaurant who was able to come and reassure me.

"Keith held my hand for over an hour, assessing how I was. I could not move. I was in shock.

"They opened the gate to the park so my daughter could drive down to the bandstand and pick me up and take me to what I thought was Malvern Community Hospital."

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Because the ambulance service at that time could not give her an estimated time of arrival, Mrs Knivett was taken by her daughter to Malvern Hospital but the X-ray department closed at 5pm so she was driven to Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester instead. 

She described the staff at Worcester's A&E as being 'absolutely brilliant', carrying out an urgent assessment because of suspected head trauma and putting her wrist in plaster which will be in place for the next five to six weeks. The whole process took just an hour and a half, she said.

"They were amazing. I also want to say a big thank you to A&E," she said. "When I got to A&E there were 10 ambulances outside waiting to take people inside. There were three people on trolleys in the corridor."

She is now recovering at home in Malvern Link.