On Sunday afternoon, I was out walking my dog when I was threatened by a man on a path about 15 minutes’ walk from my house.
I’ll spare you the details but the five or so minutes until I was able to get away from him felt like a great deal longer and it is not an exaggeration to say that I feared for my life.
It was the second most terrifying experience of my life – the first being when my husband was rushed back into theatre in the middle of the night following his open heart surgery.
It will be some time before I can easily walk those paths again.
However, one good thing that has come out of this is that I discovered, courtesy of Jennie and my son’s friend, that there is likely a feature on your smartphone that enables you to summon help. I was frantically fumbling with my phone trying to get it to call anyone. Heaven knows, it makes enough pocket calls, but the one time I actually needed it to…..
On an iPhone, you hold down the lock button and the volume button until the SOS screen appears. It’s slightly more complicated as you have to then use the slider which may be difficult if it’s in your pocket. But if you can work the sliding button thingy, it will automatically call the Police and text two of your contacts with your location.
On an Android phone, you search SOS and you can set it up from there. This article explains a bit more about what it can do.
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