Shy hero Mick Bedford won a bravery award - then insisted that his boss and branch manager should have shared it.

The 41-year-old employment agency minibus driver did not tell his wife and children he was to receive the British Red Cross Care in Crisis award.

He had clambered on to the roof of a blazing house to try to save two children believed to be trapped inside.

In fact, Marc and Philip Thompson, aged ten and 11, were playing in a nearby park when the ground floor of their father's home in Broadway, Didcot, was engulfed in flames in June.

Philip Thompson was working abroad at the time, but his estranged wife, Roberta, and their youngest son Lewis, five, managed to flee through the front door as the fire spread from the sitting room which was being redecorated.

In the confusion, Mrs Thompson was uncertain if her two older sons were still in the house. And after witnesses reported seeing the curtains moving upstairs, Mr Bedford, with Charlie Paine, managing director of Total Employment Agency opposite, and the firm's branch manager Dave Goddard, dashed to the house.

Red Cross spokesman Roger Waring said Bedford leapt on to the extension roof at the back of the house to try to get through an upstairs window. "He was forced to retreat by the heat. The mother and one child had got out - but Mrs Thompson was frantic that her other two children were indoors."

Mr Waring said Mr Bedford was distressed at not being able to rescue the children he thought were still inside the house.

To everyone's relief, Marc and Philip eventually returned from Edmonds Park where they had been playing.

"The fact that they were playing safely does not diminish Mr Bedford's bravery one iota," said Mr Waring when the award was presented by MP Sally Keeble at Northampton Football Club.

But father-of-two Mr Bedford, of Gaveston Road, Harwell, said: "It is not fair to call me a hero.

"My boss Mr Paine also got on to the roof with the help of Mr Goddard who helped me up.

"They deserve as much credit." Mrs Thompson has since returned to Ireland with her children and Mr Thompson was out of the country again this week.

But Mr Thompson's sister, Miss Barbara Thompson who comforted Mrs Thompson and the boys during the fire, said: "The family are grateful to all three men for their prompt action. We think they are all heroes."

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