HEROIC fishermen who helped rescue a walker said “nobody would have found him” had they not been there.

Guy Clifford, of Woodhouse, sprinted to the top of a bank at Saltom to call 999, screamed and used his phone’s light to attract the attention of a lifeboat crew.

His friend, Dougie Lupton, from Scotland, stayed with the 61-year-old walker from Whitehaven to comfort him and keep him warm until he was winched to safety by helicopter in a dramatic cliffside rescue.

Dense fog hampered the search for the walker, who had dialled 999 himself at about 2pm on Sunday to say he had slipped and fallen somewhere between Whitehaven and St Bees.

A lifeboat passed the two anglers at Saltom and the crew asked whether they’d seen a walker in high-visibility jacket.

“About 10 minutes later, as we were walking up the cliff to go home, we saw a high-vis jacket about half way up the cliff and it clicked right away,” said 45-year-old Guy. “There was no phone signal, I started running to the top to see if I could call 999, but I still couldn’t get through.”

It was the first time the two anglers had met after talking about fishing on Facebook and 50-year-old Dougie, who is a trained first-aider, opted to stay with the walker.

“Dougie put a jacket over him and gave him a hat to keep his head warm. He had a crack with him to keep him calm, because he was shook-up and groggy,” said Guy. “He was in a precarious situation and could have slipped down even further so we had to be careful.

“I nearly had a heart attack running up that bank for help, but when I saw the lifeboat coming back around I started screaming and flashing the light on my phone to get their attention,” said Guy. “They came over and two of the crew actually jumped out of the boat and swam towards us.”

The two RNLI volunteer crew members climbed ashore to attend to the casualty until a helicopter arrived.

A coastguard spokesman said: “Due to poor visibility, at times down to 10m, the pilot was struggling for visual reference points, but managed to lower the winch man and medical equipment to stabilise and package the casualty.”

The walker was then airlifted and taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital where the weather conditions were safer for landing.

“I don’t know what would have happened if we were not fishing down there on that day,” said Guy. “Not a lot of people go down there. Nobody would have found him on a day like that because the weather was so bad.”

The casualty is thought to have slipped a short distance from a footpath while training to do the coast to coast walk. He suffered a suspected broken ankle.

Whitehaven Coastguard and Cumbria Police responded, calling for help from Maryport Coastguard Rescue Team, Rescue Helicopter 936 and St Bees RNLI.

Dick Beddows, St Bees Lifeboat operation manager, said: “This was a great example of a multi-agency operation. Our crew would also like to thank Guy Clifford and Dougie Lupton who were fishing nearby and called 999 then helped keep the casualty warm and stable until help arrived.”