A HEREFORD grandfather who feared he would never see his family again after falling into the River Wye has called for his brave rescuers to be commended.

Pete Alderson, 73, was walking two dogs – his daughter's seven-year-old chocolate Labrador Wispa and his brother-in-law's three-year-old black Lab George – near to his home on Villa Street in Hunderton when he slipped into the river at around 9.40am last Friday.

He had walked down a track close to the Wye to call back the dogs who had jumped in but said he felt his feet slip away from him before he fell into the water.

Mr Alderson, who cannot swim, said: “I was quite a way out from the bank. I remember going down and I was panicking.

“I had flashes through my mind that I would never see my wife or my grandchildren again and went into a sort of unconsciousness. I was right down in the river at this time.

"I thought, 'this is it now'. Then I suddenly floated to the top. I don't know why or how and when I got to the top Wispa was right above me swimming about. I grabbed hold of her back and she took me to the bank.

"I then grabbed hold of the weeds and stuff to keep myself from sinking. I was really weak, I couldn't get my breath and my chest was tight.”

The next thing Mr Alderson, who lives with his wife Ronnie, remembers is a coat being thrown around him.

It was his neighbour, 47-year-old Martin Green, who had been alerted to what was happening by someone shouting from the opposite side of the river which he heard while in his own living room.

He said: “Me being nosey, I thought I would go down to the gate and have a look and then I heard 'there's a man in the river'.”

When Mr Green, who himself suffers from emphysema, saw Mr Alderson he went down and grabbed him by the back of his belt and tried to haul him up.

"I turned him over to see if I could speak to him and he was blue and his face was white as a sheet,” he said.

“I could see he had been there for what must have been around 10 minutes and was clinging on for dear life before I had even got there.”

Mr Green, who did not think twice before getting in to help, was in the river with his neighbour for around 10 minutes, attempting to hold him up, before a rower from Hereford Rowing Club joined.

Another member of the public had phoned emergency services and around 10 minutes later, Mr Alderson was rescued by a boat crew from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service.

The boat took him to the rowing club where he was put in an ambulance and taken to Hereford County Hospital. On the way to the hospital, however, he took a turn for the worse.

“In the ambulance I was shaking and couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to go now. I was petrified,” he said.

"I couldn't even feel my legs, they were freezing.”

In hospital, he was put under a heated blanket and tests were carried out before he returned home around four hours later.

"That is the closest I have ever come to death. I thought I was dead in some way. Everything was peaceful but for some unknown reason I floated back up to the top,” Mr Alderson said, adding that the water was fortunately calm.

He has called for commendations of bravery to be awarded to Mr Green, the rower who helped and the firefighters as well as a canine award for the dog.

"If she [Wispa] hadn't taken me to the bank in the first place I wouldn't have been here,” he said.

“And if Martin [and the rower] had let me go, I would have gone."