Suicide rescue man honoured

Tim Parkes was driving along Thornberry Hill Lane, Firbeck, noticed the 80-year-old man standing by his car holding a piece of pipe.

Mr Parkes was struck by the man’s “strange and confused” mannner, so he turned round and went back.

He found the man sitting his car with a pipe running from the exhaust and the engine running.

Mr Parkes pulled the man from the car and sat with him until the emergency services arrived.

Mr Parkes was presented with a certificate of commendation at the monthly meeting of the police authority by the authority’s chairman, Mr Charles Perryman.

Mr Perryman said: “A suicide note had also been left addressed to the man's family, so I have no doubt that the elderly man would have taken his own life had it not been for the actions of Mr Parkes.

“His quick thinking and fast responses to a distressing situation helped avoid tragic consequences and he deserves to be commended.”