Chatting about this at work the other day and I realised that the most heroic deed I can recall is stopping a young school kid from getting squished by a slow reversing car, so pretty uninspiring and not very exciting. I did help chase after a hit and run suspect but others managed to get to him just before I did (we saw his car hit another head-on, this other car having a Yorkshire Terrier that flew off the rear seat and hit the centre console, sadly killing it 
). One ex-colleague saw a baby's buggy rolling down the street, slammed on his brakes, jumped out of his van, sprinted after it and grabbed it just before reaching a busy junction, trumping my effort by quite a margin.
It goes without saying that nurses, doctors, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, etc are obvious "heroes"*, but I'm talking about the extraordinary feats of human sacrifice, you know, running into a burning building to save lives, taking on an armed assailant mugging an old lady, grabbing someone about to throw themselves in front of a train, taking the controls of a bus that cannot drop below 50mph or else it will blow up, etc - events where your actions have literally saved someone's life.
So...anyone prepared to share their stories?
No prizes I'm afraid, just the knowledge that you are a truly unselfish human being and the totally deserved respect and praise of everyone.
Edit: * I didn't mean to have a debate on what constitutes a hero per se, I accept that they place themselves in careers that have a much greater exposure to life threatening situations, hence why I wanted to hear about ordinary Joe Public.
). One ex-colleague saw a baby's buggy rolling down the street, slammed on his brakes, jumped out of his van, sprinted after it and grabbed it just before reaching a busy junction, trumping my effort by quite a margin.It goes without saying that nurses, doctors, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, etc are obvious "heroes"*, but I'm talking about the extraordinary feats of human sacrifice, you know, running into a burning building to save lives, taking on an armed assailant mugging an old lady, grabbing someone about to throw themselves in front of a train, taking the controls of a bus that cannot drop below 50mph or else it will blow up, etc - events where your actions have literally saved someone's life.
So...anyone prepared to share their stories?
No prizes I'm afraid, just the knowledge that you are a truly unselfish human being and the totally deserved respect and praise of everyone.
Edit: * I didn't mean to have a debate on what constitutes a hero per se, I accept that they place themselves in careers that have a much greater exposure to life threatening situations, hence why I wanted to hear about ordinary Joe Public.
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