00:00It is a beautiful day here at Dumpton Bay near Broadstairs. The sun is in the sky and that sky
00:06is as beautiful and blue as the waves are behind me but yesterday it wasn't quite as idyllic. The
00:12waves were a bit choppier and it wasn't as nice weather and there's a local riptide that's said
00:18to be able to drag people out of the beach and further round towards Broadstairs and in fact
00:23there were two small children around half two in the afternoon who realised they didn't have the
00:27strength to swim back to shore. Their parent or guardian was screaming for help only just behind
00:34me at these beach huts and she didn't know that the owner of this cafe next to me this is
00:38Bayside Cafe
00:39is Steve. Steve is a former Royal Marine and a retired firefighter so he saved lives for a living
00:47for many years. He put down the coffee he was making, jumped into the ocean and managed to drag
00:52the two children to shore and then went back to making coffee. I did speak to Steve but he didn't
00:58really want to appear on camera but he did tell me that this is something that does happen semi-regularly.
01:03He's been telling me that even adults sometimes aren't able to resist that riptide and he's had
01:07to go out multiple times to save them over the past few months. Steve mentioned that he's had to save
01:12people multiple times even last Monday there was a fully grown adult who wasn't able to get back to shore.
01:18And while Steve went back into the cafe to make some more coffees he didn't realise that that
01:22was actually going viral.
01:24The hero he runs the cafe here he looks after us he's always looking out for us he's the nicest
01:29person you could ever meet and the children were getting into difficulties Steve jumped in there were
01:35three children he saved two of them immediately and then went straight back in for the third one to save
01:42them but he looks out for all of us even he's he's working as hard as he can but he
01:47still looks out
01:48a minute anyone goes in that sea so he is our local hero and we love him. Now Steve says
01:53it's just
01:54something that he has to do but as you heard there from Tina people are calling him a hero. I
01:59suppose the
02:00whole story goes to show there are heroes waiting around every corner and maybe in a cafe here and there
02:05too. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Broadstairs.
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