Essex officers thanked for delivering life-saving news
A knock on the door in the middle of the night is usually bad news, but that wasn't the case for one family in Essex.
At 3am on Friday 21st August, PC Alex Watt and PC Sam Hudson knocked on Paul Rudd's front door in Westcliff.
The officers from the Southend Local Policing Team had good news though, the kidney transplant that Paul had been waiting for was available.
Now a few months on, Paul, his wife Buschra and daughter Isabella have been able to thank the officers.
Mr Rudd said: "Had they not come round, I don't where I'd be today.
"They got me into a taxi and I got a life-saving operation. Had it not happened, I would still have been on dialysis and quite weak.
"But now I'm on the road to recovery and I owe it all to Alex and Sam and Essex Police for coming to my aid. I really can't thank them enough."
The officers were asked by the Force Control Room to call at the Rudd's house because the Royal London Hospital had been trying unsucessfully to reach Mr Rudd to tell him a kidney had become available for a transplant.
He'd been on the transplant list since November 2019, having started suffering kidney problems three years ago.
Alex said: "We parked round the corner and knocked on the door. Mrs Rudd couldn't see the car and, initially, she wouldn't let us in and asked us to prove who we were. I said 'it's about Paul and his kidney' so then she knew that it was safe to open the door."
Mrs Rudd added:
"At first I was worried it was an elaborate hoax.
"Then I thought, 'we haven't done anything, haven't been anywhere', because we had been isolating.
"But when they said it was about Paul and his kidney, I rushed down the stairs. I knew then it was legit because they'd told me something else no-one else could know."
While Alex went upstairs to explain to Paul what was happening - that he needed to pack a bag and get to the hospital within the next couple of hours, Sam and Mrs Rudd called a taxi.
Mr Rudd was in a taxi five minutes later and arrived a short time later at the hospital where he later had the transplant.
He's been recalling the night the officers came knocking:
He said: "It's been absolutely amazing. I started dialysis during lockdown when transplant operations were frozen. But the call came the second week after surgeries resumed. The operation was five hours and when I came round, there were immediate signs the kidney was working.
"It's a life-changer. It's priceless.
"People are quick to criticise the police as they don't see that side of things.
Mrs Rudd added: "Alex and Sam went above and beyond the call of duty. Before, it was all about whether Paul would get a kidney and wondering what was going to happen. Now we can plan again."
Now Paul is on the road to recovery he wrote to Alex and Sam asking to meet them so he could thank for them for what they did that night.
Sam added finally that: "It was quite a welcome change as we usually deliver bad news. But this was good news and Mr Rudd was able to get his transplant."