TWO doctors and a nurse who volunteered to help people injured in the immediate aftermath of the Shoreham Airshow crash have been recognised for their bravery and lifesaving efforts.

Dr Karen Eastman and Tony Kemp helped rescue pilot Andy Hill from the wreckage of his plane while they and Dr Marianne Jackson also treated and helped scores of other people affected on the road and in the airfield.

Eleven men were killed when Mr Hill's Hawker Hunter jet failed to pull out of a loop manoeuvre during the airshow and smashed into the A27 on August 22 last year.

On Wednesday Dr Karen Eastman, from the Brow Medical Centre in Burgess Hill; Dr Marianne Jackson, from New Pond Row Surgery in Lancing; and Tony Kemp, of Tunbridge Wells, were presented with testimonials from the Royal Humane Society.

Mr Kemp was on duty as the senior volunteer clinician at Shoreham Airfield providing cover for the airshow, while Dr Eastman and Dr Jackson were both attending the show as spectators but offered to help after the crash.

Describing their actions before the presentation, Dick Wilkinson, the society’s secretary, spoke of the dangers they faced from aviation fuel fires, possible explosions and the horrors of the aftermath of the crash.

He said: “During the time they were working [with Mr Hill], the flames moved from ten metres to six metres behind them. "The pilot was lying alongside his aircraft and the ejector seat, still armed, was nearby."

The awards were presented by Princess Alexandra, president of the society, at Haberdasher’s Hall in London.

She also spoke privately with the trio as well as with Dr Eastman's children, Alexander, 17, and Lauren, 13, who were with their mother at the show and waited for her while she tended to the pilot.

Dr Eastman told The Argus she was "honoured" to receive the award, adding: "It is also difficult because it makes you relive what was a difficult day and a sad day.

"My thoughts are very much with the families of those involved."

Mr Kemp said the award was "humbling".

He added: "We were awarded along with some very courageous police officers and other people who had gone into burning buildings multiple times."

The Royal Humane Society was started in 1774 and today it is the main national body for honouring bravery in the saving of human life.

WE WERE REALLY QUITE CLOSE – YOU COULD FEEL THE HEAT

DR Karen Eastman and her two teenage children had gone for a day out at the Shoreham Airshow.

Like thousands of others, they watched in horror as the Hawker Hunter piloted by Andy Hill failed to pull out of a manoeuvre and crashed in a fireball.

“I had been to the airshow quite a few times before and knew the layout, so I was worried it had hit the road,” Dr Eastman recalled.

“So I went forward to see what I could do to help. Really I was only expecting to help with minor casualties, but I got picked up by Tony Kemp [the show’s senior volunteer clinician who was going to the crash site].”

At the Sussex Pad she, Mr Kemp and other first responders found a “horrendous” scene where Mr Hunter’s jet had smashed into cars on the A27 before breaking up. Dr Eastman recalled: “We were there to see what we could do to help and were sent across to where people had gathered.

“We took a look around there to see if anyone needed immediate help and left Dr Marianne Jackson with them.

“When we came back across the road, a firefighter came up from the ditch and said: ‘We have found the pilot and he is alive.’”

Helped by firefighters, Dr Eastman and Mr Kemp edged their way down a roughly 12ft embankment to reach seriously injured Mr Hill, surrounded by his ejector seat and plane wreckage.

Dr Eastman recalled: “It was sort of a wooded area with lots of brambles and we went down next to a huge part of the burning aircraft, then moved our way around to where the pilot was.

“But there was a lot of debris around and while we were treating him, another piece of the aircraft next to him caught fire, about four metres away. We were really quite close – you could feel the heat and the flames from it, so that was quite a difficult situation to be in, trying to deliver medical care to someone.”

The scene got more dangerous as the flames grew and Mr Kemp took the decision to ask Dr Eastman and some other helpers to leave, so she went back up to the road to help others who had been injured and traumatised.

Mr Kemp recalled: “The fire came up quite fiercely towards us and that is when I asked people to start leaving quite quickly because we just needed to get as many people out of there as we could and get the pilot out.

“We [Mr Kemp, paramedics and firefighters] brought him up on a special type of stretcher and handed him over to the air ambulance. It was a scene of utter devastation.

“Then after that we went back in to the airfield and continued treating people.”

He said as well as those injured and traumatised by the crash, services were also dealing with injuries and illness unconnected to the crash among the thousands of spectators who could not get out of the airfield, including missed medications.

Mr Kemp and Dr Eastman both said they were honoured to receive their awards from the Royal Humane Society.

Mr Kemp, honorary secretary of the British Association for Immediate Care, said: “It is wonderful to be thanked – it is humbling but also there is a sort of sense that we did what we needed to do.

“I wasn’t frightened at the time; it’s afterwards you start to realise what the potential of it was.”

Dr Eastman said: “I do feel very honoured; it is a difficult one when you do something like that because I don’t feel l did anything more than any healthcare professional would have done.”

The investigation into the crash, which killed 11 men, continues.