‘Good Samaritan’ Rocky Whenray comes to the aid of a pensioner taken ill in Axminster.

A ‘good Samaritan’ from Axminster has spoken of the moment he was stopped in his tracks and answered calls for help after a pensioner collapsed in the street.

Robert ‘Rocky’ Whenray, who runs the Castle Inn, has been praised by Seaton pensioner Michael Osborne, 65, for coming to his aid after he was taken ill during a visit to the town.

Mr Osbourne sincerely thanked ‘the good Samaritan’ for rushing to his side and said: “I am sure without his immediate help the outcome may have been a different story.”

It was just a normal day for ‘Rocky’ when he left his pub to pop to the bank before opening up on the morning of January 10. However, as the 49-year-old neared the bank, he was stopped by a woman calling for help.

“I was going to the bank and I was just about there when I heard a woman calling for help and I stopped in my tracks,” says Rocky.

“She was trying to hold on to a man who was beginning to collapse and he seemed to be getting worse by the second.”

Rocky called for an ambulance but, the man took a turn for the worse and seemed to stop breathing.

With his iPhone on loud speaker, he followed the directions of a man at the emergency call centre, and was asked to start performing compressions on the man’s chest, which he had never done before.

Luckily, the man started breathing after the first compression and shortly after the fire service and an ambulance crew arrived at the scene.

The incident left Rocky quite shaken, but he says he was glad he was there to help.

“I needed a very stiff drink afterwards,” he says. “I didn’t really think about it at the time; I just got on with it.

“Afterwards, I was a shaking wreck.”

However, he admits, he could not have done it without the help of the emergency telephone operator.

“Without the man on the phone telling me what to do, I would not have had a clue. I am pleased with how I reacted in that situation. I am just very glad the man was OK and I could help,” he adds.

Mr Osborne has since made a full recovery.