Look out for others and others will look out for you

Last week life gave me the chance to save someone.

As I ran along the canal in Glasgow, enjoying the sunshine nature vibes, tunes blaring, I spotted something in blue out of the corner of my eye. The blue was the jacket of a man who had disappeared as quickly as he appeared in my eyeline. In the space of a second he had stumbled into the canal.

I say it like this is a perfectly normal occurrence, trust me it isn’t. I run the canal once a week, and nothing like this has ever happened. It is one of my favourite places to run, surrounded in nature, away from the buzz of city life where you are constantly maneuvering the traffic, people, and potential danger.

The canal is the opposite, calm and chilled. On a blue sky night, it is usually alive but in a ‘we are out for a stroll’ vibe. Dotted with dog walkers, men fishing, the odd lycra-infused cyclist, or people like me, simply enjoying a run. If you were rating the canal for potential drama, it would be a low. That’s until August 2022, where drama was waiting.

Normally I keep the canal for a Sunday long run, but as I landed that morning from Croatia I ‘treated’ myself to a chilled Tuesday night running along the side of the water. And I was quite the happy runner, enjoying my music, stopping to take photos of the swans and signets. My happiness increased when the usual part of the canal path that is shut off, causing an annoying diversion onto the main road, was surprisingly open. It was a particularly joyous moment as the diversion always kills my canal run flow.

So, to find myself catching a glimpse of a man stumbling into the canal, at the exact moment I ran past, was a definite ‘what are the chances’ type moment.

As I looked around, I realized I was the only person who spotted this freak accident, and was the only person on what is usually a busy section of the canal.

I stopped in my tracks, got my breath back, and walked forward muttering 'this is actually happening'. Of course, I also paused my garmin watch from tracking my run. You know!

I bent down looking at the man in the canal, yip he was there, real and in distress. It feels surreal writing this. I felt relatively calm as I activated the 'we have a situation to deal with' version of me.

He was clinging onto the edge, tangled in the ravines, flapping in a panic. I held one of his hands, looked him in the eye, and told him to focus on his breathing - that we would get him out. After quickly looking around for help, I realised it was still just me on the canal.

Finally, after holding back a bit to make sure there was no chance of the man flapping too much and dragging me in, I gazed around and purposefully waved down an older gentleman out on a bike ride, kitted out in his lycra. ‘Thank goodness’, I thought, as he jumped off his bike.

He seemed confused, as was I. But there was no time to answer the elephant in the room ‘how did the mam just fall in’, aa we were mid rescue. After some huffing and puffing, we were soon yanking the guy out, now supported by another man, who had been fishing with his family.

Next, I'm leaning over grabbing his tangled leg. Thankfully, we had him back safe on the canal path, lying like a distressed whale.

this all happened real quick, the whole time I continued to feel super calm; like there was only one outcome, we would save the man.

The man, who I think was maybe on drugs (the answer to the elephant in the room thought bubble), caught his breath after coughing and stumbling up to his feet, wandered off shouting for 'Senga', so I took the opportunity to thank the cyclist for helping.

A surreal feeling surrounded us, as we looked at each other smiling, a little giddy, high on the adrenalin from the rescue. Not quite sure what just happened.

The cyclist exclaimed I had done a great job, that I was stronger than I look, and must work out. "Ehhh, yeah”, I muttered. Thinking back to swinging my dumbbells in my flat, to look and feel strong, not to be a canal rescuer.

So much happened that day on the lead-up to my run, so the chances of me even being on the canal, running, were slim, and to be there at that exact spot to catch a glimpse of the man as he fell into the water was even slimmer.

Before the run I was procrastinating big time fixing my hoover, after googling how much a new one would be and getting a shock. It nudged me to finally fix the terrible suction but pulling it to pieces to clear the dusty filters. Then, once I finally got going, I kept stopping to enjoy the passing ducks and a new bridge.

Now on reflection, maybe the universe was intentionally slowly me down, to align my run with the stumbly canal man. Life is sometimes full of chance encounters, or maybe not. Maybe I was meant to be his savior. Who knows. All I know is when you need to, you will figure out how to handle a situation you didn't even know was going to present itself.

And how did the night end, I finished my run as the canal man started to strip out of his wet tracksuit! Still shouting for Senga.

That night, as I got ready for bed, I had a wee moment where I appreciated how precious life is.

Sometimes we need to do stuff where there is no reward, a selfless task, for the greater good. I’m not sure he even thanked us in the end, he was pretty ‘gone’. All I know is there are so many people that have helped me along in my own life journey, none as dramatic as being saved from a canal, and I am forever grateful for the part they have played, however small.

It is good to know, as I encountered through my rescue, that we all have an inner knowing where we will step outside our comfort zone to carry out a selfless task to help someone else on their life journey. As I waved off the cyclist, I shouted that we had done our good deed for the day, and it make me feel a little fulfilled. So, the next time you are looking for a pat on the back for a selfless task, know you are appreciated and pat yourself on the back.

Society says, "Look out for yourself", But God says, "Look out for others and I will look out for you"