AN award-winning paramedic, who put his own life at risk in an attempt to save a canoeist, has been praised by ambulance chiefs.

Stan Beer, 50, braved North Yorkshire's fast-flowing River Ure to reach 46-year-old prison officer Stephen Scott, who had had been attempting a rescue himself.

Soaked to the skin and with limited equipment, Mr Beer performed resuscitation techniques on the unconscious patient until help arrived.

"Stan did an absolutely magnificent job,'' said fellow paramedic Steve Wilson, one of the team on board the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

"These were very difficult circumstances; it was bitterly cold but he worked professionally with the minimum of equipment with a very sick patient."

Mr Scott, who is from the Leeds area, was taken to the Friarage Hospital, in North-allerton, but died later. A 14-year-old boy who was with him was also taken to hospital, although his injuries were not thought to be serious.

A third canoeist was treated for shock and hypothermia at the scene.

All three had been paddling down the River Ure from Mickley, North Yorkshire, when they got into difficulties at the weir at Slenningford Mill, near West Tanfield.

Other canoeists in the area dragged Mr Scott and the teenage boy to an island midstream when emergency services arrived. The fire brigade reached them via a rope strung across the water.

However, the injured man needed expert help and Mr Beer, who was on board one of three ambulances called to the scene, was attached to a harness before wading chest-deep into the freezing water.

Once he reached the patient, he was able to insert a tube into his airway to help him breath before blankets and other equipment were winched across.

A pulley was used to transfer Mr Scott to the bank where the air ambulance was waiting. An RAF rescue helicopter then lifted those left on the island to safety.

However, despite praise from ambulance service managers, Mr Beer said others who had helped deserved credit for their part in the rescue.

"The CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) done by the canoeists who rescued the patient from the water was first rate,'' he said. "They did an excellent job - as did the fire brigade."

Mr Beer, who sits on Harrogate Borough Council and is a former Mayor of Pateley Bridge, in North Yorkshire, already has one award for bravery.

The Royal Humane Society singled him out for his part in a river rescue at How Stean Gorge in Nidderdale in the early 1990s