Special delivery! Wythenshawe postie gets missing Alfie, 5,

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A postman has been hailed a ‘guardian angel’ after saving a young boy with autism who was about to run on to a dual carriageway.



A postman has been hailed a ‘guardian angel’ after saving a young boy with autism who was about to run on to a dual carriageway.

Postie Steve Cresham was on his rounds when he found five-year-old Alfie Jennings walking alone towards busy Altrincham Road in Brooklands, Wythenshawe.

Alfie had run out of the family home on nearby Chesterton Road while his mum Corinna was having a fridge delivered.

The panicking mum had called police, who were sending officers to search for Alfie when Steve found him 20 minutes later. He grabbed the youngster as he ran towards traffic and carried him home, having recognised him from his rounds.

Corinna said: “The delivery men were bringing the new fridge-freezer in when a couple of minutes later I noticed the front door ajar. I had that terrible sinking feeling and ran round the house shouting for Alfie then went out into the street, but couldn’t see him.

“I was absolutely hysterical and called the police who said they would send people out to search for him. The delivery men also dropped everything and went out looking.

“I didn’t think someone had snatched Alfie, I just knew he would have gone towards the roads because he is going through a phase of being fascinated with grids.

“When Steve came down the road with Alfie in his arms it was just absolute relief. Steve is a guardian angel and a hero – I can’t thank him enough.”

Alfie’s autism means he always has to be under supervision as he has no sense of danger and cannot communicate. He is also easily overwhelmed by loud noises or busy places – but loves to look at cars. Parents Corinna and Mark, who also live with Alfie’s twin Maisie and older sister Abbie, 19, are now having alarms fitted to their doors to prevent their son escaping again.

Steve, who has worked for Royal Mail for five years, has been rewarded with a slap-up meal with wife Cath by bosses at Wythenshawe sorting office.

He said: “I had just been unloading my van when I turned round and saw Alfie walking on his own down the road. I didn’t want to alarm him so I followed him, hoping we’d find someone out looking for him. But when we got to Altrincham Road he made a lunge for the cars and at that point I knew I had to act.

“I grappled him onto the grass at the side of the road and managed to pick him up. When his mum saw us, she couldn’t speak and I could tell she’d been hysterical. Alfie’s a lovely lad and was soon happy to be back in his garden – I don’t think he realised what had happened.”

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Hero postie ‘like a guardian angel’

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Distraught mum Corinna Jennings had never been so relieved when she saw her local postie Steve Cresham appear around the corner with her missing son in his arms.

Five-year-old Alfie is severely autistic and had got out of the house while Corinna was having a new fridge-freezer delivered.

She had called the police and they were searching for Alfie – but to no avail.

Steve was out on deliveries. He told the August edition of Courier: ‘I’d only just parked the van and started deliveries when I saw the boy walking towards me. Because we know our customers so well, I know where he lives and that he is autistic.

‘He walked past me and I realised that no one was with him. I didn’t want to just grab him as this could have startled him. But he walked to the corner right next to a busy dual carriageway.

‘He can’t communicate very easily and doesn’t always understand what you are trying to say, so I couldn’t explain to him that he shouldn’t go into the road. In the end, I just had to pick him up – although he resisted at first.’

‘Guardian angel’

Steve rushed to Corinna’s house, to a hero’s welcome. Corinna was so overwhelmed she couldn’t speak at first.

She later wrote in to thank Steve, telling Courier: ‘He is like a guardian angel. Alfie’s autism is so severe that he would not have known not to just wander into the traffic, so Steve potentially saved his life.’

It was all in a day’s work for unassuming Steve.

‘It was pot luck that we did our round in that order on that day as otherwise I wouldn’t have been there,’ he says.

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Beat them by 3 months

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Beat them by 3 months