Man who saved woman hit by flying rocking horse says he's no hero

A Scottish football fan has been hailed a hero after coming to the rescue of a woman badly injured by a flying rocking horse. Tracey Blackstone, 52, was celebrating a friend’s birthday in Dublin, Ireland, when she was knocked out by the wooden toy. The rocking horse was hurled from a second-floor window in the city’s lively Temple Bar area. Stricken Tracey collapsed with blood pouring from a four-inch gash in her head as hundreds of football fans, in the city for the crunch international between Ireland and Scotland, stared on in disbelief.



Luckily, first-aid trained lifeguard Craig MacDougall sped to the rescue. He whipped off his Scotland shirt and staunched the flow of blood. Paramedics and police, who are now hunting the suspect who threw the toy, have hailed his quick-thinking heroics. Modest Craig, however, says he just did what anyone would do. “A few of us were just coming round the corner to get some chicken nuggets,” said Craig, 24, of Blantyre, South Lanarkshire. “We saw the rocking horse fly out of a window and the next minute Tracey just fell back. I didn’t even think, I just took my shirt off and wrapped it round her head and shouted to the Garda to get an ambulance.”

Craig then waited with badly injured Tracey until the ambulance arrived at about 1am last Friday. Paramedics rushed the grandma-of-two to hospital for x-rays and a CAT scan and stitched her head wound. Tracey’s cousin Julie Beaumont, 45, said: “The paramedic said that, in 15 years doing the job, he’d never seen an injury like that caused by a rocking horse.” Tracey’s friends took Craig’s number, offering to buy him a Scotland shirt to replace his blood-stained one. But they missed a digit – and thought they’d never see the Good Samaritan again. So Julie posted a message on Facebook to find him after returning home last Sunday and found Craig within a matter of hours.



“I didn’t expect anything like it,” said the mother-of-five, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. “We posted the message at 1pm on Sunday and by 8pm we’d found him! We got a message from his mum while he was still in Dublin. She should be really proud of what her son did.” Tracey, who is recovering at home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, sent a heartfelt message of thanks to Craig, describing him as a “hero”. “I’m very lucky that he was there,” she said. Craig is amazed at the incident, which police in Dublin have confirmed they are probing. “I was just doing what anybody else would do,” he said. “They were so generous on insisting on replacing my shirt but I’d have ruined it anyway – by pouring Guinness down it!”