Police officer gets hero award for saving dementia patient on day off

PC Amy Rowlands (middle) was given the award with Joseph's son and daughter-in-law present

The family of a dementia patient who went missing for more than 30 hours have thanked the off-duty police officer who found him in a ditch and presented her with a local hero award.

Joseph Hughes, 85, from Porthcawl, Bridgend, vanished after going for a walk from his care home in August.

PC Amy Rowlands helped in the initial search but "could not rest" and continued looking the next day.

She said it was "amazing" to be given a local hero certificate.

She added, however, that is was for the larger team.

Mr Hughes was found 15ft (4.5m) down in a ditch by National Police Air Service (NPAS) officer PC Rowlands after she went out looking on her bike.

Joseph Hughes, pictured with his daughter-in-law, was missing for more than 30 hours in August

She said: "I couldn't get rid of the thought of him being alone in a ditch somewhere, so [as] I live in Cardiff, I put my bike in the car and drove to Porthcawl and then searched for him on my bike.

"I felt I'd pieced together a direction of travel from the search the day before and, following that direction, I found a remote area which had a high probability of [him] being located there.

"I was calling out his name, I was just shouting out 'Joseph, Joseph' because I really felt he'd be there and all of a sudden I saw some movement and it was amazing I'd found him and he was OK.

"I just wanted to get to him, but where he'd fallen there was a 15ft steep drop, and I couldn't get to him the other way because of all the brambles, so I called 999 and gave them the 'what three words' location and within minutes traffic officers and search teams were there.

"I did see Linda and Martin on the night. It was really emotional to see them and for them to know I was part of the puzzle to return their Dad.

"It's lovely that they've arranged this for me with the Alzheimer's Society to have recognition, but I was only just a piece in the puzzle, there was other aircraft, all the people on the ground and, because they were dealing with big areas of the town, beach and dunes, I could focus on the smaller pockets.

"But it's lovely to see them again and hear Martin's Dad is OK and happy."

Mr Hughes left his care home at about 13:00 BST on 14 August, leaving his family distraught as they tried to trace his steps.

His son and daughter-in-law, Martin and Linda Hughes initially thought he could not have gone far, but became extremely worried when night fell and he was still missing.

A huge search effort took place with help from the RNLI, the emergency services and the local community.

But hope faded when Joseph still hadn't been found by Sunday morning.

Martin Hughes said: "We were out searching the sand dunes when we got a call to say he'd been found. As soon as we'd heard he'd been found we went straight to the location and found out Amy's story and the selfless act she carried out."

Martin Hughes' wife Linda Hughes said: "Everyone was outstanding, from the local community, all the emergency services but what Amy did...

"She took a day out when she could have been spending time with her family. But because she couldn't rest, because she cared about someone she didn't know, she went out and searched for Joseph. We just think that's the most amazing selfless act anyone could ever do."

The National Police Air Service have been called to 800 incidents in the South Wales Police area between January and August.

About a quarter, nearly 200 call outs, have been for missing vulnerable people.

Jess Bowring, from Alzheimer's Society Cymru, said: "It's between three to four calls a week on average the National Police Air Service are called to locate people with Alzheimer's or dementia.

"But with 46,000 people living with dementia in Wales we fear those call outs could increase. What Amy has done is incredible."

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