I risked my life jumping into dangerous river to save my son’s favourite toy rabbit when wind blew it out of his hands
A SUPERMUM jumped into a fast-flowing river to save her son’s favourite toy rabbit when the wind blew it out of his hands.
Lou Austin was carrying two-year-old son Tommy over a bridge when a sudden gust sent Bun Buns into the water.
As the soft toy was swept downstream, Lou, 27, handed Tommy to his dad, gave her engagement ring to a stranger and left her mobile phone on the side before cannon-balling into the 5ft deep water.
After retrieving Bun Buns, Lou began to sink into the thick sludge on the river bed and her fiancé Richard Harvey had to reach down from the bridge to pull her out.
Lou, from Bridport, Dorset, said she had no choice but to save the toy bunny because her son could not sleep without it.
Speaking after the rescue from the Brit river at West Bay, Lou said: “We had gone for a family meal and were walking back when the wind blew the bunny into the river.
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“I said to my partner, ‘I’ve got to get him’, and he said, ‘You can’t go in there, it’s disgusting!’. My little boy has never slept without that bunny. He has had it since birth.
“I have tried to find him a replacement but he just doesn’t take to anything else. I just thought, ‘I need a good night’s sleep tonight’. I had no choice but to go in and get it. I could see it bobbing up and down on the water.
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“I gave my engagement ring to a stranger, got a hair bobble from another woman to tie up my hair and cannonballed off the 6ft high bridge. The current was strong so I was trying to tread water.
"It felt like there were a load of eels at my feet and I was covered in sludge. The rabbit had gone about 60 metres down stream.
"Once I had it I swam back to the bridge. When I was there my partner had to pull me out because I was starting to sink into the sludge. Luckily, my car was only about a minute’s walk away."
Cameron Love, who witnessed the incident, said: “I hapened to look in the river to see a cuddly toy in there and thought, ‘That's a shame’.
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“I then noticed someone trying to help somebody out of the water and realised it was the woman’s partner.”
West Bay is used to seeing scenes of drama — it was the setting for hit ITV crime series Broadchurch.
