A PENSIONER spent 31 hours calling for help after collapsing in his garden.

Geoffrey Abbott, 85, crawled into his garage after a fall while picking up leaves.

But despite desperate pleas for rescue, he was unable to be heard by family members and neighbours.

The Portslade resident has been described as “one tough cookie” by hospital staff after he was eventually found – and had to be treated for dehydration, pneumonia and kidney issues.

Mr Abbott said: “It was Saturday morning and I went out in the garden and was picking up a few leaves with the grabber.

“I was just about to get off the lawn and put the leaves in a sack but as I approached a small step, I suddenly felt myself going backwards.

“Luckily I fell on my back and didn’t hit anything.

“I managed to crawl into the garage where I normally sit in the day but I couldn’t raise myself to sit in the chair.”

Mr Abbott said he managed to sit on a mat on the garage’s tile floor after the incident on November 30 to escape the wind and rain.

But was unable to pull himself up onto a chair or get out of the garage.

He said: “I couldn’t move, I tried to attract attention as loud as I could until it got dark.

“I remember thinking ‘I’ve missed Match of the Day, bother’.

“The next thing I know it was daylight again – I don’t know what happened in between, I must have gone to sleep.

“Come Sunday and I was shouting ‘help’ as loudly as I could again.”

Mr Abbott’s son then came to visit him, but was unaware that his father was helplessly stuck in the garage.

He stayed in the house looking around for his father, while Mr Abott, who could hear him, was calling out for help. “This went on for about an hour,” Mr Abbott said.

The son, who did not want to be named, contacted neighbours fearing for his father’s safety.

Mr Abbott said: “I was seeing all sorts of apparitions – I saw fish in the sky and bugs in the roof.”

He was finally found the Sunday afternoon – 31-hours later – by a neighbour who had come to check on him at about 5pm. He was nursed back to health by Royal Sussex County Hospital staff.