A PENSIONER was saved from drowning in a cesspit after a neighbour heard her cries.

Bridget Minogue fell through a back garden manhole cover into the two metre shaft. The woman, who is in her 70s, was visiting her nephew's house in Old Town when the accident happened.

She was chest deep in raw sewage when her cries were heard by neighbour Trevor King. Her legs were starting to give way and she was at risk of sinking into the pit.

Mr King, 51, alerted the fire brigade and lay on his chest, holding the woman upright as he battled to stay conscious amid the fumes.

Mr King said: "I was scared I was going to faint with the stink. It was foul, it really was. I was washing my wife's car when my son, James, came and said he could hear something like a scalded cat.

"I listened and it was a human voice, so I rushed into my neighbour's garden and the smell hit me. I grabbed her hand and raised her. I had to lie flat. I raised her hand so she could grip the opening of a pipe in the shaft, went and called the fire brigade and got back out."

Haunted by the thought of the distressed woman slipping beneath the surface of the filth, Mr King ran back to the shaft and held her again.

Minutes later, firefighters armed with a ladder arrived at the house, in Quarry Road, and rescued her.

The pensioner, who lives in Swindon, was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital. A hospital spokeswoman said she was in a stable condition.