TWO flood heroes braved a terrifying torrent of water to rescue a pensioner trapped in his home by rising flood waters.

Jeff Thompson, 75, and his wife Betty will celebrate tomorrow knowing that things could have been very different had the men not heard her desperate cries for help.

Jeff has multiple sclerosis (MS) and believes that had he not been plucked to safety from his Rickerby home by David Taylor, 48, and plumber Ian Huntington, 59,  he would have been overtaken by the rushing water.

“I honestly thought that was it for me," he told The Cumberland News . “I’ve had MS for more than 40 years and I know that if I go down I can’t get up again without somebody helping me.

“The water was overwhelming me. I’d begun to resign myself to it. I’ve never seen anything so scary in my life."

Jeff and Betty had spent the previous evening enjoying a community Christmas party at the village’s Rickerby Retreat and Assembly Restaurant. 

David, a Paris-based lawyer, had travelled back to Carlisle for that party and was spending the weekend at the home he and his wife Sarah own - next door to the Thompsons.

As the water levels rose on Saturday, December 5, Betty dashed out of their ground-floor apartment to move their car.

By the time she returned the water was waist-high and, when she opened the door she was horrified to see Jeff - who is dependent on a mobility scooter - clinging to the grandfather clock in the hallway.

Jeff recalled: "I’d slid to the floor, between my mobility scooter and the grandfather clock, because I couldn’t hold myself up.

“If I’d stood up, the force of the water would have swept me away. It was a torrent."

Father-of-three David and plumber Ian were nearby and heard Betty's cries for help. 

David, a former Trinity School pupil, said: “Jeff was in shock, and the water was rising fast. I just thought: I’ve got to get him out of here.

“It seemed like the sensible thing to do.”

Ian added: “It was a joint effort. You don’t get time to think, or be scared. You just get on with it.”

With Ian's help, David carried Jeff on his shoulders to the relative safety of his house 20 or so yards away. 

“I weigh 12 stones, but somehow [David] got me over his shoulder,” said Jeff. "He must have had an adrenaline rush to do that.

“What a hero he was. They could see the danger that I was in."

Betty added: “Jeff was just trying to hold on to the grandfather clock with the water swirling around him. 

“If David hadn’t been able to pick him up he would have drowned. Jeff keeps saying that he is so lucky to be alive. 

"We both know that without David and Ian, Jeff would have drowned that night.” 

Amid the drama, Ian’s wife Julie managed to rescue the couple’s petrified pet dog, a schnauzer called Millie.

Waters eventually reached about eight feet - with rescue boats forced to carry residents to safety.

Betty said she and Jeff, who was airlifted out of Rickerby on the Sunday, have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the many people who have helped them. 

They include the couple’s daughter Julia Gibson, 47 - whose home in Crosby-on-Eden where she lives with husband Bobby, 50, and their son Patrick, 16, was also flooded – and their nephew Neil Milbourne, owner of Walby Farm Park, who put them up after the disaster. 

After the flood, the couple’s home suffered a second blow as fire broke out, destroying everything left. 

Betty said: “You wake up in the night and realise the enormity of it, but people have been so generous. 

"The important thing is that we’ve still got each other."

As she started sorting out her parent’s wrecked apartment, Julia said: “I think we’re all still in shock. 

"But thank God David was there.”  

Despite the scale of the destruction, David said the shock of being flooded had been eclipsed by how the disaster brought out the caring community spirit of Rickerby. 

“We have lost a lot of stuff, but what’s happened has made us want to come back to Carlisle even more now," he added.

"The most important thing is the wonderful sense of community.”