My surgeon told me she'd never met a hippo victim before... they usually go straight to the morgue! Late life adventurer Roland - and his wife Shirley - describe how he escaped the jaws of the most dangerous beast on earth

Shirley Cherry volition ne'er hide the infinitesimal she watched her hubby gasping for aerial earlier being dragged underwater by a 1.4-ton hippo.

Moments earlier, she and Roland, some 63, had been enjoying a peaceful meander successful a canoe down the Kafue River successful Zambia. 

The time was agleam and lukewarm and, conscionable aft 8am, their radical – comprising 8 tourists and 2 guides connected a safari circuit – had acceptable disconnected connected the scenic African waterway, heading for an land 15km downstream wherever they planned to walk the night.

Shirley and Roland were experienced ­canoeists, truthful were ­looking guardant to ­taking successful the birdsong and hoping to spot ­elephants, antelopes and buffalo grazing connected the riverbanks.

'We were each successful a line, astir 3 metres apart, and Roland and I were successful the 2nd canoe,' recalls Shirley, from Tysoe successful Warwickshire. 'We'd lone been going astir 5 ­minutes erstwhile 1 of the guides, who was successful the canoe successful front, turned and said: 'Hippo connected the right, you request to support to the left.'

'The adjacent infinitesimal determination was an almighty bang from underneath; it was similar a car crash.'

Given that a hippo is simply a akin value to a household car, it's an appropriately terrifying comparison.

'The canoe tipped up and, the adjacent happening I knew, we were successful the water,' Shirley says. 'People astir maine were shouting, 'Swim!', truthful I managed to get myself to the bank. It was lone erstwhile I got determination that I realised Roland was obscurity to beryllium seen.'

Shivering connected the shore, her bosom pounding, Shirley frantically searched the h2o for signs of life. Two different canoeists, who'd besides been ­capsized, stood successful beforehand of her with their ­paddles aloft – she present realises they were shielding her from seeing the worst.

Somewhere nearby, 1 of the guides shouted the unimaginable words, 'He's dead.'

Miraculously, they spoke excessively soon. Seconds later, Roland appeared successful the mediate of the river, choking, spluttering and struggling for breath.

'I can't explicate the alleviation I felt erstwhile I saw him travel to the ­surface,' Shirley says. 'He took a large gulp of air, but past helium was dragged down again by the hippo. I thought: 'This is it. There's nary mode helium tin past that.'

What happened adjacent is simply a blur. One of the different tourists recalls the ­animal surfacing 1 last clip with Roland lying limp successful its jaws, earlier tossing him towards the ­riverbank 'like a matchstick'.

Another witnesser described it arsenic being similar 'a large achromatic shark ­tossing a seal'.

Mercifully, Shirley has blocked these images out.

'It's the body's coping mechanism, I suppose,' she says.

What she knows present is that the hippo, seemingly a pistillate ­protecting her calf, flung Roland 2 metres into the air. He landed successful shallow h2o adjacent to the enactment and, inactive conscious, managed to crawl to the edge, wherever helium was dragged to safety.

Disorientated, bleeding profusely and truthful severely injured it wasn't wide if helium was going to marque it, helium was – someway – inactive alive.

Shirley ran to him, shouting his sanction implicit and over. Neither of them could rather judge it was true.

Three months person passed since that atrocious day, and Roland is inactive here, though the scars of what ­happened tally deep.

Today, backmost location successful the quiescent agrarian spot wherever the mates person lived for 33 years, 5,000 miles from the Kafue River, helium admits it each feels 'quite surreal'.

The wounds connected some his legs – wherever the hippo's tusks scraped truthful aggressively that the soma was ripped to the bony – are healing nicely, arsenic is the 10-inch gash connected his abdomen.

There's inactive immoderate bruising from the wound people connected his near bicep, but he's regained question successful his ­dislocated close shoulder, aft months of intensive physiotherapy.

It took 7 operations and a two-and-a-half-week stint successful ­hospital to get him here, and he's painfully alert however adjacent helium came to losing his life.

'The surgeon who operated connected maine successful South Africa said I was highly lucky,' says Roland, who worked arsenic a institution ­director but is – aft everything he's been done – present earnestly considering retirement.

'She was incredulous. She said: 'You are my first. I've ne'er met a hippo onslaught unfortunate earlier due to the fact that they usually spell consecutive to the morgue.'

'If the wounds successful my legs had been 1 oregon 2 millimetres deeper, they could person snapped off. If the coiled successful my abdomen had gone into my gut, I would person bled to death.'

It sounds horrific but Roland has, somehow, maintained his consciousness of humour throughout, crediting Shirley and their 2 children, arsenic good arsenic the doctors progressive successful ­Zambia and South Africa, for ­keeping his spirits up.

There are, helium laughs, immoderate 'fairly gruesome photographs' of his injuries 'that aren't for household viewing'.

It's surely not the acquisition – nor the vacation snaps – that Roland and Shirley expected to bring backmost from their large African adventure.

The couple, who met astatine Leeds University, aged 19, and person been joined for 38 years, had go later-life travellers aft their ­children, Ben and Tara, some successful their 30s, near home.

'We've been to Iran, Ecuador, ­Peru, Patagonia,' says Roland. 'Earlier this twelvemonth we did a circuit of Turkey.

'Last twelvemonth we were successful Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We besides did an Indian safari, and we'd done an African safari earlier to the ­Okavango Delta successful Botswana.

'I work geography and archeology astatine university, truthful I'm a ­geographer astatine heart. I emotion large mountains, large waterfalls, large valleys; that's what floats my boat.

'It's maine who has the existent ­wanderlust. Shirley is precise polite and turns up with her passport and asks maine wherever we're going this time.'

Having work question ­articles astir the South Luangwa National Park successful Zambia, Roland longed to visit, truthful this travel – a five-week camping expedition done Botswana, past exploring Zambia, Malawi and down the Mozambique seashore to Kruger National Park – had been agelong successful the planning.

Though not risk-takers, Roland and Shirley were each excessively alert of the dangers of the wildlife successful these far-flung places – and importune it ne'er enactment them off.

'You request to person an knowing that these are earnestly chaotic ­animals and they can, successful the worst circumstances, termination you,' says Shirley.

'Our lad is simply a wildlife ­photographer and we are wildlife enthusiasts, but you spot pictures of them looking cute and cuddly – adjacent the hippos look benign – and that's acold from the truth.

'I retrieve once, erstwhile we were connected a walking safari successful Africa, we were brought to a abrupt halt by our usher and told to enactment very, precise quiet.

'Out of the bushes, this troupe of elephants appeared, conscionable 10 metres away. They're immense beasts but they determination silently – they could person knocked america implicit and killed us.

'It's each astir being sensible, doing what you're told and ne'er taking immoderate chances.'

Having completed the archetypal limb of their tour, from Johannesburg successful South Africa to the majestic ­Victoria Falls, they were excited for the 2 weeks of adventuring they had left.

Four days into their itinerary, the radical – Ronald and Shirley, 4 Australians, a Swiss antheral and a ­German pistillate – camped ­overnight connected the banks of the Kafue River, a tributary of the Zambezi.

Shirley remembers waking connected June 25 to a 'cursory' information ­briefing, aft which beingness jackets were handed out. Having canoed ­several times successful the past, some astatine location and abroad, she had nary ­concerns astir being successful the water.

'I did latch connected to 1 happening the guides said: 'Avoid the hippos and anticipation the crocs don't get you,' she recalls. 'You perceive these things, but you enactment your religion successful the locals, and you ne'er deliberation it'll hap to you.'

Roland's memories of the hippo onslaught are hazy. Astonishingly, helium ne'er really saw the carnal itself: his acquisition was mostly of the symptom and being pulled with vicious unit nether the river.

His enarthrosis was dislocated by the unit of hitting the h2o aft the canoe was struck and helium remembers it 'really smarting'.

'Shirley did what we had been told to bash successful the lawsuit of falling in: aquatics similar brainsick for the bank,' helium recalls.

'But I couldn't aquatics due to the fact that I lone had 1 limb working. I tried by champion to bash a one-handed breast-stroke, but minutes aboriginal I felt this happening travel up and drawback me.

'I retrieve thinking: 'This is it. This is me. This isn't however I planned to go.' I was ­thinking, 'No, I'm not acceptable to die. I inactive person things I privation to do.'

'It took maine to the bottommost and past it fto maine go, and my beingness vest started taking maine up towards the surface. I retrieve counting to 10 arsenic I went up, and realising however heavy I was.

'When I reached the ­surface, I took a large gulp of aerial and past it came for maine again and grabbed maine and pulled maine under.'

Roland doesn't retrieve being submerged again, nor the hippo – whose wound is truthful almighty it tin drawback a quality successful fractional – tossing him successful the air.

'My assemblage had gone into ­shutdown-mode done sheer trauma,' helium says. 'The adjacent happening I retrieve was sitting successful shallow h2o looking astatine my knees, which were a bloody mess. There were bits of soma sticking retired from my torn shorts and humor each implicit my near thigh. I couldn't spot the remainder of it, but I was successful a batch of pain.'

A motorboat took Roland to the jetty, wherever helium was lain crossed 3 seats successful a minibus which drove him to Mtendere Mission Hospital is adjacent Chirundu.

Here, helium received life-saving care: wrong 2 hours, they'd fixed him a wide anaesthetic, cleaned his wounds and sewed them up sufficiently for him to beryllium airlifted to Johannesburg's ­Milpark Hospital for integrative ­surgery the pursuing day.

'They were amazing,' says Roland, who has since acceptable up a fundraising leafage for captious supplies and instrumentality astatine the tiny agrarian hospital, for which donations present transcend £20,000.

'They didn't say, 'Where's your recognition card?' oregon 'Do you person insurance?' They took 1 look astatine maine and did everything they could to prevention my life. I americium everlastingly successful their debt.'

He is afloat of praise, too, for the infirmary successful Johannesburg wherever helium had different six operations, which helium credits with having 'the champion trauma surgeons successful the world'.

Throughout, Shirley – who had to conflict unsympathetic borderline police, get last-minute visas and unexpectedly find herself money, accommodation and transport successful South Africa, not to notation breaking the quality to their horrified children – has been his 'rock'.

She spent each time for 2 weeks astatine Roland's side, feeding him, washing him, climbing into his furniture to work to him and ­keeping him motivated for what laic ahead.

'I was rather analytical astir it,' insists Roland. 'You person to beryllium stoic; it's a reasonably British absorption to thing similar this.

'I acceptable myself targets astir wherever I was going to be, what cognition I was having next. But without Shirley there, I mightiness person ­unravelled rather quickly.'

Their son, Ben, flew retired to articulation them, portion their daughter, Tara, booked clip disconnected enactment to walk with her begetter arsenic soon arsenic helium got backmost to Britain.

'We're a precise adjacent household unit,' says Shirley. 'It was fantastic being reunited. Roland's full look lit up erstwhile helium saw them.'

Not a time goes by erstwhile she doesn't punctual herself that, but for their sitting positions successful the canoe that day, it could person been her.

'In the nicest imaginable way, there's little of maine than determination is of Roland,' she says. 'There's little of maine to chomp.

'I can't assistance feeling that, if it had been me, I wouldn't beryllium present now.'

She pats Roland's genu fondly. 'I'm immensely arrogant of him. He didn't kick once.

'It was astonishing. He indispensable person been successful rather immoderate symptom astatine times, but helium got done it, and I'm amazed astatine his bravery and his resilience.'

The passing of clip has, certainly, helped some Roland and Shirley speech astir the trauma with levity – truthful overmuch truthful that they're giving a bid of talks astir the acquisition successful their section community, wherever Roland has been nicknamed 'Hippo Man'.

With status connected the cards, Shirley, an amateur artist, has turned her attraction to drafting portraits of chaotic animals – astir precocious a zebra, leopard and elephant.

She has not, yet, attempted a hippo, though some importune they harbour nary sick volition towards the ­animal, into whose situation they unwittingly strayed.

Roland is simply enjoying what helium calls his 'second accidental astatine life'.

Currently helium has nary question plans successful the calendar, but helium refuses to regularisation retired a instrumentality to Africa, which some helium and Shirley accidental is simply a '­magical' place.

For now, possibly thing person to home.

'I think,' helium smiles, 'a cottage successful Cornwall mightiness beryllium a bully idea.'

• To donate to the Mtendere Mission Hospital, visit: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/RolandCherry