ROPE-swing accident victim Nicola Southward has said a big thankyou to the 999 heroes who rescued her.

Nicola,11, of Hood Street, Accrington, was playing at Priestley Clough in Accrington, when she plunged 30 feet from the swing into a step-sided gulley.

When leading ambulance technician Robert Gibson and paramedic Peter Ballan reached her she was lying injured, cold and frightened in the wet riverbed.

Yesterday the Moorhead High School pupil went to Accrington ambulance station with cards and boxes of chocolates to say thankyou.

Nicola, who spent three days in hospital with a badly broken wrist and severe bruising, also got two special signatures on her plaster cast she has saved.

The ambulance crew had to trek a quarter of a mile to reach Nicola. They splinted her arm and fearing back injuries put on a collar before placing her into a scoop stretcher.

The fire brigade joined the rescue with a bucket stretcher and Nicola was carried half a mile along the river bed to the waiting ambulance.

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