Meet the Best man who saved groom’s life twice

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London, Oct 13: A best man has a lot of responsibilities before a wedding, but one such person has set a new benchmark for others by saving the life of his friend and groom-to-be twice in exactly a year.

Lance Corporal Craig Turley, who was on patrol with the 1 Rifles in the Nar-E-Saraj district of Afghanistan on September 23, nearly lost his left hand when an exploding grenade severed an artery. Exactly a year later, he was bitten by a venomous snake while training in Kenya.

But the 28-year-old, Lance Corporal Scott “Ringer” Townson, a medic, was there to help on both the occasions.

Townson will be the best man to Turley, when he marries his fiance Amy Rhodes next April.

“When the hand grenade went off it created a lot of dust and fragmentation went into my left hand and it cut my artery,” the Telegraph quoted Turley, who is from Marlborough, Wiltshire, as telling The Citizen newspaper

“Ringer tried to stop the bleeding and calmed me down. If it wasn’t for him and the medical team at Camp Bastion, I would have lost my left hand.

“A year later and we’re on patrol and I went down in the grass and got bitten by an Egyptian cobra, again on my left arm,” he said.

After half hour the soldier started to feel nauseous, and started convulsing.

He said all he could hear was Townson, who had come to his aid with a supply of anti-venom.

“He had saved my life again and that is no exaggeration as my heart was starting to give in,” Turley said.

L/Cpl Townson said, “I was just doing my job like anyone would, but it is strange that it was exactly a year ago I treated him in Afghanistan and I’m not sure whether he will want to be near me on September 23 next year.” (ANI)