Street Ranger reunited with baby born on Southend High Street

Last month (19 June) Lynn Htun and her husband Amr Elebediwy were enjoying a visit to Southend-on-Sea, when it turned into a day that the family – and indeed shoppers on the town’s High Street – will never forget.

The family were strolling along the beach when Lynn began to feel contractions, two and a half weeks early. 

“I called the hospital and they said to get to a hospital immediately, but we couldn’t find a taxi so we decided to walk towards the train station. But the contractions came very close and I couldn’t walk any further”, Mrs Htun told reporters at the time.

As the drama unfolded, one of Southend Business Improvement District (BID) Street Rangers, Wayne Edwards, received a call from an eagle-eyed member of staff at Ponden Home and he raced to the scene, accompanied by Luke Bender of Southend Borough Council’s Community Safety team.

Wayne requisitioned some barriers from Marks & Spencer and a “massive” umbrella from a passer-by to make the area more private for Lynn. Wayne explained:

“She quickly cracked on doing what she’s done for however many years. Everyone in the area pulled together and helped. A hair dresser’s gave me a load of clean towels to cover the baby and a woman bought the baby some clothes from a nearby shop,’’

An ambulance quickly arrived and the family were taken to Southend Hospital, with mum and baby both declared to be healthy.

So, it was a wonderful surprise for Wayne and his BID colleagues when little Aya, mum Lynn, dad Amr and big sister Hannah visited Southend again to celebrate Aya’s entry into the world and thank the people whom had played such a major role in her unusual delivery.

“She’s so adorable!”, Wayne said as he held Aya with pride:

“Lynn and Amr were really full of thanks and had also gone to the trouble to send us a card and some chocolates as a thank you. It was great to see them all again.”

Image: Southend BID