LYDNEY associate priest Rev Pat Cox has a heartwarming tale for the snowblitzed of a mercy mission on-foot to get a dialysis patient to Gloucester for vital treatment.

At the height of Friday's snowstorm Lydney kidney patient Sid Gresty, in his mid-90s, had an urgent call from the ambulance service saying the road was impassable to reach him.

"The road is blocked to Kimberley Drive. But we'll do our best, even if we have to send a fire tender!" they pledged.

Some time passed but then three ambulance staff, two women and a man, appeared and plodded through driving snow up to his house on foot.

"They put him in his wheelchair, wrapped him in several blankets and struggled off down Kimberley Drive pushing Sid up and down hills until they came to Lydney bus station where the ambulance was waiting," said Rev Cox.  

"They got him to Gloucester and he was able to have his dialysis.

"He then wondered what the journey home might hold for him but received a call from his daughter to ask the ambulance to 'come right up to the house'.

"On arrival there they found the road cleared up to Sid's drive and all his paths clear.  A neighbour who had observed the difficulties of the morning had been out and cleared the road, going all the way up to his garage."

Mr Gresty told the Review he was very grateful for the crew's devotion to duty – without his three-times-a-week trips to Gloucester he would be very ill.

"It was really nice of them to help," he said. "Also my neighbour – I don't really know him at all but to go to all the trouble of clearing the road was very nice indeed."

The kindness did not stop there for his early morning carers came again in the evening to see him safely to bed.  

"The wonderful thing is that there were probably many people doing these kind things for others over these past difficult days," said Rev Cox.