Last updated on September 23rd, 2025 at 04:06 pm
Imagine going for a nice stroll with your 4-month-old twins. They are safely strapped in their stroller. You stop by the canal and push the brake on the stroller – except the brake malfunctions and the stroller and babies plummet into the cold English canal.
That is exactly what happened to Ellie Walls and her twins, Marley and Riley, at the Kennet and Avon Canal. The stroller plunged down a 10-foot canal. Ellie jumped in after them and screamed for help as they sank beneath the waters. She found the side-by-side stroller but couldn’t lift it out of the water. Luckily, two heroes –Fiona Holmes and Jessica Oliver — heard her cries and ran to help. They got there as she was struggling to keep the babies in their stroller above the surface of the water and helped her lift it out.
Once the boys were out of the water, 29-year-old Ellie fainted because of the shock and had to be helped out herself.
She came round to discover Fiona and Jessica, both 28, had grabbed the twins, ripped off their freezing baby clothes and ran to get blankets, diapers, and warm clothing from a nearby Blue Cross charity store.
The two women even stripped off their own clothing to put around the twins.
Ellie told the Newbury Weekly News, “Those girls are my heroes. They even took the clothes off their own backs. They helped save my boys’ lives. Without them, Marley and Riley could be dead.”
Paramedics took the babies and Ellie to Great Western Hospital, Swindon, where they were treated and released.
The drama happened when Ellie took off her coat and in that split second the brake failed and the stroller rolled down a slope into the canal.
She urged parents to double-check the brakes on their baby strollers, adding: “It seems you get what you pay for – I won’t ever buy a cheap buggy again.”
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