When Shropshire pensioner Bob Wellings fell into his garden pond, leaving him with a six inch gash in his head, his cries for help were heard by his 10-year-old neighbour.

Young Haifa Maysefield showed maturity beyond her years by calmly alerting her mother and Mr Wellings’s wife, who staunched the flow of blood from the wound while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Mr Wellings today praised Haifa for her actions.

The 75-year-old retired pharmaceutical representative tripped on a paving stone in the back garden of the semi-detached cottage where he lives with his wife Margaret in Yorton Heath, near Shrewsbury.

Today he said: “I went virtually headfirst into the pond and hit it on the side which left me with a six inch cut on my head. I had a new hip a year ago and the other hip isn’t brilliant and I couldn’t get out of the pond.

“I think I was shouting my wife’s name more than anything but she was in a part of the house where she couldn’t hear a thing.

“Our 10-year-old neighbour realised I was in trouble and alerted her mother and my wife. They staunched the flow of blood, pulled me out of the pond, dried me off and dressed me in dry clothes just as the ambulance arrived.”

Mr Wellings, a father of three and grandfather of six, had to stay in hospital for two nights following the accident last month.

Haifa’s mother Jeni Maysefield, today said she was extremely proud of her daughter’s actions.

She said the Myddle School pupil had shown great initiative.

“We hear our neighbours shout to each other quite often but Haifa was quick to realise something was wrong,” she added.

“She said: ‘Mummy Bob is shouting but he doesn’t sound right and he’s spluttering as well’.”

Mrs Maysefield said she rushed to her next door neighbour’s garden and found Mr Wellings trying to hoist himself out of the pond. She said he was extremely cold and wet and covered in blood.

Mr Wellings today praised everybody who helped him, including the ambulance crew and staff at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.