Watch Jon Cole talking
about the rescue

A coastguard in line for a bravery award after risking his life
to save a young woman from drowning has described the dramatic
rescue.

Jon Cole, along with two other coastguards and a police officer,
is to be rewarded by Kent Police after taking swift action after a
26-year-old woman plunged from the M2 bridge between Cuxton and
Chatham at about 7.15pm Monday.

Mr Cole, who works at Medway Bridge Marina, was called by a
witness who claimed to have seen the woman leap from the bridge and
land in mud.

After paging
Medway Coastguard, he phoned his son (John Lovage) and Clive
Tillotson, who was by his boat. The three coastguards sped out
towards the woman and Mr Cole jumped into the mud and held her head
above the rising tide.

PC Andre Smuts of Kent Police was on the shore and talking to
the men on the boat. He then crawled out towards the scene. Mr Cole
said: "At one point the PC and I looked at each other and I said
'I'm going to get in trouble for this' and he said 'yup, me
too'."

The four waited for the mud rescue team from Strood Fire
Station. The woman was brought ashore before being taken to Medway
Maritime Hospital.

The men are to be rewarded by Kent Police but Mr Cole said he
did not do the work for awards. He said: "We don't do it for that,
we do it to save lives.

"If it was not for the call from the public we may have been
looking for a body; if it was not for my son getting the boat over
a mud bank we might not have reached her. It was a combination of
everybody - we all played a part and everybody did well."

The woman, who is from Northfleet but has not been named, is in
a stable condition.