A Darlington Teenager Kept a Stranger Alive With an Hour of CPR. Now a National Lifesaving Society Has Honored Him.
Samuel Ellis, 16, a student at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, has received a Royal Humane Society Resuscitation Certificate after he began CPR on a cyclist who collapsed in cardiac arrest near Tideswell, Derbyshire, and helped keep it going for about an hour until ambulances arrived. The cyclist made a full recovery.
Just News Desk, Correspondent||4 min read
DARLINGTON, England - Samuel Ellis was heading home from a family break in the Peak District in April when he saw a cyclist fall from his bike near the Derbyshire village of Tideswell and go still. The 16-year-old ran to him, began CPR when the man stopped breathing, and, with two strangers who stopped to help, kept it going for about an hour until ambulances arrived. The cyclist has since made a full recovery, and Samuel has received a national lifesaving award from the Royal Humane Society, The Northern Echo reported.
Samuel, a student at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington and a sergeant in the Northallerton Air Cadets, received the society's Resuscitation Certificate for his response on April 10, according to the newspaper.
When he reached the cyclist, the man was still breathing, the Echo reported. Soon he was not. Samuel told a bystander to call 999 and began chest compressions himself.
CPR being practiced on a training manikin during a first aid class at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, Feb. 10, 2021. Illustrative image of the technique; it does not show anyone in this story. Photo: Sgt. Zachary Zippe, U.S. Army National Guard, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KFOR_conducts_CPR_training_(6519586).jpg
A passing dental nurse and a Community First Responder joined him, and the three continued CPR for about an hour until two ambulances and an air ambulance reached the roadside, according to the Echo. Paramedics then worked for roughly another hour before they restarted the cyclist's heart. He was taken to hospital and later made a full recovery.
His college, in its own account of the rescue, said the man had spent three days in an induced coma before returning home, and that he and his wife later thanked Samuel for saving his life. Samuel credited the first aid training he received through the Air Cadets.
"Because of my first aid training through the Air Cadets, I knew how important it was to act quickly," he told the college. "Once I realised he wasn't breathing, I started CPR straight away."
Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance helicopters at Coventry Airport, January 2015. Illustrative image; it does not show the aircraft or crews that responded in this story. Photo: Karen Massey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Warwickshire_%26_Northamptonshire_Air_Ambulance_and_Derbyshire,_Leicestershire_%26_Rutland_Air_Ambulance_Helicopters.jpg
The Royal Humane Society said Samuel's quick thinking and determination had helped keep the cyclist alive until emergency crews took over.
"Samuel, who was on his own at first, did a brilliant job," said Andrew Chapman, the society's secretary, according to the Echo. "The prolonged bout of CPR ensured that the man was in the best possible condition for recovery when the paramedics arrived at the scene. Samuel richly deserves the award he is to receive."
The two met again in October, when the cyclist was reunited with the teenager who had saved him on BBC Breakfast during National Cadets Week, according to the BBC and the Combined Cadet Force.
The award is not the first recognition of the year for Samuel, who was named Young Citizen of the Year at his college. The Echo reported that he has helped care for his mother, Vicky, since childhood as she has faced epilepsy, strokes and a brain tumour, and that he also helps with the family's chocolate business in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire.
He has said he hopes to build a career in the emergency services. Asked about the rescue, he described it in the plainest terms.
"I didn't think I'd done anything special because I'm so used to being a carer," he told the Echo. "I just knew what to do."
Sources: The Northern Echo, Patrick Gouldsbrough, "Darlington student Samuel Ellis wins national lifesaving award," Nov. 1, 2026 (https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/26684094.darlington-student-samuel-ellis-wins-national-lifesaving-award/), also published by the Darlington and Stockton Times (https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/26686151.darlington-student-samuel-ellis-wins-national-lifesaving-award/); Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, "Student's quick thinking saves cyclist's life" (https://qeliz.nalp.org.uk/students-quick-thinking-saves-cyclists-life/); Combined Cadet Force, "BBC News: CCF Cadet Commended and Reunited with Cyclist he Saved," Oct. 9, 2026 (https://combinedcadetforce.org.uk/news/bbc-news-ccf-cadet-commended-and-reunited-with-cyclist-he-saved/); BBC News video, "Cyclist reunites with teenager that saved his life" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cvwy74wjzng5o). All images are illustrative, freely licensed or public domain photographs via Wikimedia Commons.
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