Dust cart loader Nicola Young, who lives aboard a narrowboat plunged into the Kennet and Avon Canal during darkness to save a man from drowning.

Ms Young, 44, lives on her boat in the Pewsey Vale and works for Wiltshire Council as a refuse loader.

On November 30 she will find out if she has won a new national award at the St John Ambulance First Aid awards in London for her bravery.

Ms Young remembers vividly the night of the rescue in May, being first alerted when she heard a thump against her boat.

Despite it being the middle of the night and wearing just her pyjamas Ms Young grabbed a torch and went to have a look but could see nothing until a man on the towpath said his friend had gone missing.

Renewing her search from the gunwhales of her boat and peering into the murky water at the side of her boat she spotted a hand.

“I shone my torch down and all I could see was this hand under the water; the man was totally submerged,” said Ms Young, who learned her first aid skills at Durrington School.

“I jumped in and grabbed him by his collar and pulled him out from under the boat,” she said.

“I called to his friend to help me get him out of the water “He was unconscious, his breathing was very shallow and I could see he had a nasty head injury,” said Ms Young, who by then was muddy and bedraggled.

“I put him in the recovery position and stayed with him until the ambulance paramedics arrived.”

Ms Young said all she knew about the man – who she later discovered had suffered a fractured skull – was that he was a tourist staying on a hire boat.

He later wrote to thank her and she also received a letter of commendation from Wiltshire Police, who attended the incident.

Ms Young said: “I originally did my first aid training at school and I have always kept up the refresher courses wherever I have worked.”

She also helped save another man’s life a few years ago when she came by a horrific road crash in Marlborough and climbed in through car window to support the man’s head until an ambulance crew arrived.

Ms Young said: “I acted on instinct on both occasions but I am so glad that I knew first aid and was able to help.”

She said she believes first aid should be a curriculum subject in all schools and said: “It just goes to show you never know when you may need it.”

Ms Young has been shortlisted for the Guy Evans Award given in memory of a 17-year-old Didcot schoolboy whose moped ended up in a ditch in August 2008 – he died because no-one at the scene was first-aid trained.

She is one of five candidates for the award given by Guy’s mother Beth Chesney-Evans to reward “heroes who have been the difference between a life lost and a life saved”.