How Radio 1’s Greg James saved drowning OAP

RADIO 1 DJ Greg James really did make waves when he saved an elderly woman from drowning — he was even wearing Baywatch-style red swimmers.
In an exclusive chat with Guilty Pleasures, the BBC presenter told us all about his beachside heroics in Antigua, during a recent holiday with a friend.
‘We’d just been for a swim and it was pretty rough. “Let’s get out of here”,’ he recalled. ‘The riptide was strong.
‘We were having a pina colada at the bar and I was wearing red swimming shorts. There were two old couples [out at sea] and I remember thinking, “They’re in trouble”.
‘Three of them managed to get out but there was this one woman who just couldn’t stand up in the water. So I put down my drink, sprinted along the beach, jumped in and dragged her out.’
However, the rescue was a long way from the glamour of Baywatch’s lifeguard team… Greg, 31, explained: ‘I’m not exactly beach-body king, she’s quite elderly and doddery, and her swimming knickers fell down a little bit while I was pulling her against the sand.
‘But I did save her from potentially not being very well at all!’
Greg quipped that he now listens to the Baywatch theme tune on a daily basis. ‘It’s my alarm every day,’ he laughed. ‘Then I go into the shower and do a slow-motion hair swish!’
Greg’s children’s book Kid Normal — co-written with Chris Smith — is out now.
Author: Tom Stichbury