A GROUP of teenagers have been hailed as heroes for saving their friend from drowning at Port Soif on Saturday. St Peter Port School pupil Heidi Belshaw, 15, dislocated her kneecap while swimming shortly before 5pm.

One of her friends kept her afloat while others went to fetch help on the shore. A girl approached teachers from the school, who were also by chance on the beach – but they allegedly refused to help.

‘They just said ﾓHeidi is too heavy for usﾔ,’ said 15-year-old Sam Crawford, who raced into the sea to help his struggling friend.

‘She came back and said that the teachers were not going to come over because Heidi was too heavy for them. We just laughed.’

St Peter Port head teacher Ken Wheeler said he had spoken to five teachers who were on the beach – they were not in an official group.

They told him that they had not seen Heidi in deep water at any time and, when they were asked to help, she had been sitting down at the water’s edge.

Not all of them were aware of her knee condition ‘she suffers from a recurring dislocation of the kneecap’ and other people were helping by then.

‘There was no imminent danger and it was not clear from a distance if the youngster was in discomfort.’

Heidi’s grandfather and guardian, Jeffrey Belshaw, 59, said that the teenagers had been heroes and had almost certainly saved her from drowning.

‘I don’t think they realise that, but they certainly are,’ said Mr Belshaw.

‘I’ve no doubt that without the actions of those three boys, we would have had a fatality.’

The boys brought Heidi ashore and were offered help by a woman whose doctor husband was nearby. Heidi’s friends said that it was only then that the teachers had offered help.

‘It was only when Heidi’s kneecap had come back in and she was standing up that they came over with some crutches,’ said Sam.

The Ambulance and Rescue Service was called shortly after 5pm.

Heidi said: ‘I thought it was not very good with the teachers because if my friends had not been there, I could have drowned.’

Mr Belshaw, who was not on the beach at the time, said: ‘They ‘the teenagers’ could have asked anybody on the beach for help but they didn’t – they asked the schoolteachers.

‘I’m pretty disgusted because if they could not have helped, they should have asked somebody else,’ he said.

He said the incident was a lesson for the future.

‘I’ve written a letter to the school, but you can’t take it out on the school.

‘But when children are told that they are ambassadors for the school wherever they are, even if they are on the beach, I think it sets a pretty poor example,’ he said.

He wanted to thank all those who had helped Heidi.

Mr Wheeler spoke to the Belshaws on the telephone yesterday, but he said that when one of the teachers involved tried to contact them, the phone was put down.

They arranged a call later, but

the family did not appear to be pacified.

‘The people involved are very caring but they did not see the urgency of it and the emergency services had been phoned by that time.’

He said that the school now considered the matter closed.