HALF a century ago young Eric Johnson almost died when he fell into a pit slurry pond - now he has travelled 12,000 miles from Australia to thank the hero who saved his life.
Eric and his friend Wilf Taylor were only 12 when, in 1957, they went to North Gawber Colliery yard to collect bird eggs.
Against Wilf’s advice, Eric walked across a spoil heap in pursuit of a cuckoo’s egg, a rare prize for a young collector.
As he crawled across the surface of a slurry pond, the foot-thick crust broke, he plunged into the ten-foot deep pool of sludge and could have drowned.
Eric said: “He had to come on and put his own life in danger to pull me out.
“It wasn’t a knee-jerk decision - he had time to think about it and consider what he was doing.”
Wilf suggested going to get help from an adult when he failed to reach Eric with sticks and ropes. “I said don’t go because I’ll be gone when you come back. I’m sinking.”
