People: Halifax author and champion fundraiser Grandad Wheels reunited with man who saved his life thanks to chance encounter

Brian Abram from Skircoat Green – better knows as Grandad Wheels – has raised a staggering £51,000 for charity and spoken to 19,000 children as part of his campaign to help people with spinal injuries and spread the message that having a disability is no barrier to having fun.

He needed a year in Pinderfields Spinal Unit and was left a T9 paraplegic and full-time wheelchair user after a bicycle accident in 2013 just outside Manchester.

Brian fell down a sheer drop, hitting a tree and plunging into the river below.

"I landed in a river, face down, and I couldn’t move because I was immediately paralysed, and I was drowning – I know that,” he said.

Brian passed out but Stephen O’Gorman bravely waded into the water and saved Brian’s life.

But Stephen had thought his incredible efforts had not succeeded, as he was told the 65-year-old had not survived.

That was until earlier this month when Brian happened to be on a visit to Stephen’s daughter’s school in Warrington.

Eight-year-old Emily was telling her dad when she got home all about Grandad Wheels when Stephen realised he was the man he rescue - and he was still alive.

"I don’t mind telling you the blood drained from my face when I realised who it was and that he had survived and our efforts hadn’t been in vain,” said Stephen.

Brian said: “I owe my life to Stephen and everyone else who helped me on the day.

"Some nine years after the event, he came into my life by the most bizarre co-incidence. It’s almost as though someone wanted this to happen.

"The chance of my being in that school and for that little girl to get a book must be ridiculously small. But it happened and I couldn’t be happier about it!”

Brian has written a series of successful books – ‘The Adventures of Grandad Wheels!’ – based on the japes he gets up to with his grandson Charles, with all proceeds going to charities to help people with spinal injuries.

His books are available from https://www.grandadwheels.com/books