Jonathan BatesMODEST teenager Jonathan Bates has been hailed a hero after he dashed to the aid of an 89-year-old woman who had fallen at her home.

Neighbours believe that without the 15-year-old the elderly woman may not be alive today. Jonathan's heroics only came to light after someone called Matravers School to praise him.

The teenager helps many elderly residents living near his home in Oldfield Park, Westbury, and was on his way to collect newspapers for two of them when he heard stricken Muriel Wheeler shouting for help from her bungalow in Paverley Close.

He said: "I thought I had better check it out in case anything had happened. I was very worried when I saw her on the floor. She couldn't reach her Lifeline so I ran to use the one next door. I then opened the window and climbed through.

"I helped her up and put a blanket around her because she was getting really, really cold. When I got in she said 'Oh I'm pleased to see you'."

Jonathan waited with Mrs Wheeler until her daughter, Gillian Spackman, arrived and she was found a temporary place at a nursing home near Warminster. He had found her at 6.15am, and her carers were not due to make their routine visit until 9am.

Mrs Spackman said: "It's great he is getting a bit of praise because kids aren't getting much these days. He couldn't have done any more for her. If she had been there any longer she really could've got hypothermia."

Mrs Wheeler's next-door neighbour Beryl Kirkham, 63, rang Jonathan's headteacher Nigel Gilhespy to say how caring he had been. The teenager regularly shops and gardens for Mrs Kirkham, who is disabled, and used her Lifeline alarm to help Mrs Wheeler.

Mrs Kirkham said: "He is a genuinely good boy and helps me with everything. There are not many youngsters who would do this the other kids around here like annoying elderly people.

"Without Jonathan she wouldn't be here now because she was so cold."

Mr Gilhespy has written to Jonathan praising his life-saving feat, saying: "Many congratulations on your actions last week. I have no doubt that you rescued a difficult situation which may well have been life-threatening."