Tunisia: First Picture Of Heroic Husband Who Shielded Wife From Killer
SWNS - Cheryl and Stephen Mellor on their wedding day in June 2006
This is the first picture of hero Stephen Mellor, who died trying to shield his wife, Cheryl, from Tunisia gunman Seifeddine Rezgui.
Engineer Stephen, 59, urged his wife to get down and hide behind their sun loungers after hearing screams and gunshots, but tragically they were unable to escape the IS terrorist’s horrific shooting frenzy.
Cheryl was severely injured in the attack, suffering gunshot wounds to her forearm and leg, while her hand was “blown straight off”.
The retired psychiactric nurse, 55, lay and played dead beside her “soulmate”, who she married in June 2006, as the killer continued to fire his Kalashnikov assault rifle.
So far 38 people have been declared dead as a result of Friday’s shooting in the holiday resort of Sousse.
Speaking from her hospital bed, mother-of-two Cheryl said: “There were bullets everywhere. It was terrifying. The noise will stay with me for ever.
"There were so many screams. My husband turned to me and said, ‘Get down - get down’.
"He said, 'We’ve got to make a run for it’. I turned around and there was a gun pointing right at me around 20ft away. I thought I was dead.
"He blew my hand straight off. All I could see was this figure with a gun, dressed in black.
"I was screaming at people to check Stephen and someone looked and they said he had no pulse. They said he was gone.”
Terrified Cheryl, who lives in Bodmin, Cornwall, added: “I couldn’t move. There
was nothing I could do. I just played dead.”
She was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, where her condition was stabilised, and has now been flown back to the UK for further hospital treatment.
Husband Stephen was not named as among the dead until Monday morning but his widow said she had always feared the worst.
She said: “This is a nightmare. Stephen was a lovely man. He was my soulmate.”
Fellow holidaymaker Allen Pembroke, 61, from Essex, has described going to Cheryl’s aid as she lay on the beach surrounded by dead bodies.
He said: “Cheryl was the only person I could find who was alive.
"I offered to carry her back to the hotel, but she said she didn’t want to leave her husband, even though I could see he’d been killed.
"She asked me if she should play dead, and I said that was the best thing she could do if she didn’t want to come with me.
"Her wrist was in a terrible state and she had a bullet wound in her leg; there was a lot of blood.
"I managed to wrap up her leg to try to stop the bleeding.
"Her husband Stephen was lying on his side to the right of a sunbed. I could see he was gone.
"There were six or seven people all around Cheryl, and they were all dead.
"There was nothing more I could do, and I went back to the hotel to make sure my wife was OK.
"I’m just so glad Cheryl is alive for her family, and sad for the loss of her husband.
"Unfortunately I was unable to help him as he was already dead.”
Stephen, who worked for Irons Brothers of Wadebridge and was a popular member of the local golf club, leaves behind three sons from a previous marriage.
Matthew Robinson, the company’s chairman said: “He was extremely popular and his loss has been a terrible shock for everyone.
"He was an easygoing, honest and straightforward character and he will be sorely missed.”
