A GRANDMOTHER who broke her wrist and ankle in a fall last week wants to thank the three good samaritans who stopped to help her while dozens of other people walked by.

Sheila Winter, 67, was on her way to meet an old friend for coffee at 3.45pm on Friday when she went sprawling near Churchill Square.

She slipped outside Metro Bank on the corner of Western Road and North Street and ended up face down on the pavement, with cuts to her face and searing pain in her wrist and ankle.

Her shopping bags were in disarray around her.

Sheila, who works at Eastbourne District Hospital, said: “I was flying forward and flailing.

“I think I knocked myself out.

“The next thing I knew I was lying there on my front and my side like a beached whale.

“I couldn’t get up, I knew I’d broken my wrist. Afterwards they told me I’d broken my ankle too.”

“I could just see a forest of feet walking past me, and I was thinking, ‘If only someone could help get up off the pavement’ because I couldn’t get myself up because of my wrist.

“People just walked by. They weren’t bothering to stop.”

After a few moments, three good samaritans – a young man, a young woman, and an older man who introduced himself as a retired police officer – stopped to help.

They collected Sheila’s belongings, and the two men supported her to her feet.

The policeman helped her hobble around the corner to Waterstones where she met her friend and a member of staff called for an ambulance.

After waiting an hour, and being told the emergency services might take more than two hours for the non-emergency call, she took a taxi to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, where she received x-rays and treatment for fractures to her wrist and ankle.

“The staff in Waterstones were lovely, and the hospital staff too even though they were very busy,” said Sheila.

But it’s the three people who helped her to her feet to whom Sheila particularly wants to reach out.

“I just want them to know how much it meant to me for them to come along and rescue me.

“If they hadn’t come along who knows how long I might have been there trying to get back on my feet.

“It’s just such a shame when these things happen. You don’t think to ask people their names. I was so shaken up.

“But I’d like to send them a card or buy them a present.

“People need to be thanked. So many people nowadays don’t seem to be bothered and don’t want to get involved.

“People that do are really really special people.”