A BRAVE mum had to dive in to rescue her three-year-old son after he fell into a huge CESSPIT full of 3,000 gallons of sewage.
Christine Saul, 41, leapt into the pitch-black pit as her distraught son Bertie, three, screamed for help.
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The youngster fell in after a manhole cover collapsed at home in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Christine and Bertie were both pulled from the sludge by good Samaritans – and brave Bertie’s survival has been credited to his weekly swimming lessons.
The tot immediately turned on his back to stay afloat after falling five feet into the family home’s cesspit, which could fit a “double-decker bus” inside it.
Christine – an executive producer for BBC’s The One Show – said Bertie’s swimming teacher “saved his life”.
Christine said: “I’m normally with Bertie in swimming lessons – he’s never swam on his own.
“I totally think that the swimming lessons saved his life.”
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The horrifying ordeal unfolded at the family’s home last Wednesday as Christine returned with sons Bertie and Toby, six, after their day at school.
Bertie stepped on an aluminium manhole cover that was installed last year which opened slightly before he slipped into the brick-walled cesspit.
The pit hoards waste from two properties.
Christine recalled: “I had my back turned and my other son just said ‘Bertie’s gone’.
“All I could see was one side of the cover sticking up. Bertie was already floating on his back and shouting ‘mama, mama.'”
After trying to call emergency services, Christine looked back inside the hole and could no longer hear or see Bertie.
She decided to jump fully-clothed into the pitch-black cesspit and swam through the muck to find her crying son floating in a corner.
A passerby helped pull Bertie back to safety before a local plumber lowered a ladder into the pit to help Christine climb out.
Both were treated in hospital with antibiotics to counter any infections from being submerged in the sewage. They have since returned home.
Christine, who lives with her sons and husband Jeremy, 47, said: “I thought Bertie had died at one point. I’m feeling so grateful and thankful.
I thought Bertie had died at one point. I’m feeling so grateful and thankful.
Christine Saul
“Bertie is doing really good. He’s come up in a full-body rash from head to toe but the doctors say it’s probably a viral rash.”
Josie Beale, a resident who helped retrieve Bertie from the pit, recalled the tot screaming in horror.
Josie said: “I looked down the drain and saw these two faces looking up at me.
“I couldn’t comprehend what was going on, as the last thing you expect to see is a mother and a child down a drain covered in dirt.
“Bertie was screaming the whole time.”
Local plumber Guy Simmonds lowered ladders from his work van into the pit to save Christine.
He said: “It was just relief that they both got out okay.
“She burst into tears when she got out because the shock obviously set in.”
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