Hero dad saves duckling! (From This Is Cheshire)

Hero dad saves duckling!

8:49am Wednesday 2nd December 2009

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AN heroic dad-of-two rescued a duckling after it fell into a sewer in Appleton before swimming a treacherous 25-feet underground.

Eleven-year-old Olivia Reilly wrote to the Guardian after Stewart Livingstone lifted a manhole cover and braved the murky depths of the drains, under Woodstock Gardens, to fetch the duck, which was separated from its family.

He climbed 10-feet down and managed to lift the bedraggled bird out using a net .

He said: “Olivia saw the bird fall through the grid and shouted for help. We could hear the duckling quacking as it travelled through the tunnels under the road.”

Stuart, father to Isabelle and Madison, aged five and three, added: “It was hard – a smelly and grubby thing to do but we were more worried about the safety of the duck.”

The incident happened a couple of weeks ago as Olivia was playing outside with friends. Suddenly she saw a group of ducklings waddling past her house.

She said: “My friends and I rushed over to see them. There were nine tiny ducklings and one mother duck. The ducklings were smaller than my fist. We fed them some bread. We were there for 10 long, enjoyable minutes.”

After a while, the family left and Olivia followed them so she could see them get back into their nearby pond.

She added: “They began to walk over a grid. They had all made it over safely until suddenly, the duckling at the back fell down the grid. The mother and remaining ducklings just carried on back to the pond. We figured we had to do something quick!”

The children managed to find a fishing net and came rushing back but the duckling had disappeared.

By this time roughly 15 neighbours had assembled to help and when Olivia made quacking noises the duckling responded.

It was at this point that Stuart intervened, volunteering to go down after he had unscrewed the lid cover.

Olivia said: “After he heroically climbed back out we walked to the pond and let the duck in. It swam to it's mother as quick as a rocket. We watched for a few minutes then walked back home. A true hero!”

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