A DAY out on the canal with his family ended up a near-death experience for Paul Snook and the man he saved from its murky depths.

Mr Snook was enjoying an afternoon on his boat on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal with his partner Bernadette Bailey and her daughter Julie when they heard a commotion after a man fell into the water.

“I pulled off my boots and jumped in, but it was pitch black and I knew that the water was deep because my boat pole which is eight foot long could not reach the bottom,” said youth worker Mr Snook, aged 45, who lives in Tenbury and runs the Buzz in Ludlow.

“After what seemed like an age, I found the man and pulled him up by his feet.”

Mr Snook’s first impression was that the man was dead. Ms Bailey, a reception teacher at Ashford Carbonell School in Ludlow, and two men on the bank pulled Mr Snook and the victim – Brad Reagan of Worcester – out of the water.

When the emergency services arrived, the pair were taken to hospital.

Mr Snook is disabled as a result of a car accident as a teenager and has to use crutches. He also suffers from chronic fatigue.

The rescue took place on April 21.