True Hero: 15-Year-Old Boy Saves Toddler Who Fell Into Canal But Humbly Says: ‘I Just Did What Anyone Else Would Do’
A 15-year-old British boy showed the whole world that he is a true hero after he leapt into a canal to rescue a toddler who’d accidentally fallen into the water.
It was just an ordinary Sunday when Ryley Ferguson was walking his dogs in Knottingley, West Yorkshire when he spotted 15-month-old Reggie playing in the grass near the canal, he told the BBC.
“I thought ‘He’s too young, he shouldn’t be out here on his own,’” Ryley recalled.
Not long after, Reggie fell into the water without so much as a splash— and within seconds, Ryley was in after him, stripping off his shoes and coat and diving right in.
“I turned around and I just could see his legs, they were sinking,” he told the BBC. “I dived in, and I swam across. And I was like, ‘I’ve got you, I’ve got you. You’re alright, you’re alright.’”
Neighbors reportedly heard the teen’s cries for help, and came to the scene to help pull him and Reggie — who appeared “shocked” but not hurt — out of the water.
“If Ryley hadn’t have been there, I’m pretty sure that little lad would’ve gone, you know…,” neighbor Trevor Dann told the BBC. “He was already under when Ryley got to him, and Ryley had to fish around under the water.”
Reggie’s mother Becca Hampton says that her son had been playing outside in the garden when he slipped away without her realizing.
She praised Ryley as “amazing,” and said she’d be unable to properly thank him for saving her son’s life.