Keith the Download 'legend' keeping metalheads fit and well

The search began, where else, with an appeal on Facebook - anyone who saw the post who knew Keith from the medical tent at Download Festival needed to tell him - he was an "absolute angel".

Keith was the on-site nurse at the Leicestershire event who had tended Honey Lowe after the 21-year-old woke up in her tent at the weekend and could not feel her legs.

He stayed with her for several hours, reassuring her and even making her laugh, before she went to hospital for spinal surgery.

But as festival-goers heaped praise on Keith in their comments under his photo, a theme emerged as they were joined by a stream of posters who told how he had been the saviour of their weekends too - fixing everything from swollen eyes to dislocations, sunburn and broken bones during the rock and metal festival.

Several said he had treated them at Download in years gone by, while others remembered him looking after them at Leeds festival.

"Keith is a legend. Busted my ankle on the Thursday and he taught me how to properly walk on it before being discharged," one recalled.

Another said that at their first year at Download, their partner dislocated their knee - which Keith put back into place.

He also realigned the commenter's hips that had been causing them issues during the event.

The BBC tracked Keith Hewitt down at his usual place of work, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, where he works as an emergency preparedness and business continuity manager.

He said he was delighted but overwhelmed by the attention.

"I don't do this for the gratitude, I do this for the enjoyment actually of knowing that people are able to go and do something that they enjoy," he said.

Well Keith, you had better get used to the praise - fans are now considering having Keith T-shirts printed for next year's Download!

Zoe Durber-Worrall, from Stoke-on-Trent, wrote the initial post on a Download Facebook group and said she just wanted her gratitude to reach him.

"I just wondered if anybody knew Keith, who was on there, that they could just pass it on to him because he's just amazing," she said.

Her future daughter-in-law already has bulging discs in her back but when she awoke on Saturday morning, after three nights in a tent, she had no feeling from the waist down.

"She couldn't move, she'd got no bladder control, nothing... she was in a lot of pain... it was just horrific," said Durber-Worrall.

As the terrifying situation unfolded, the festival-goer was carried to the medical tent, where she first came across Hewitt.

"He was knowledgeable, he was calm, he kept her calm, he'd got a brilliant sense of humour," said Durber-Worrall.

Hewitt insisted that Lowe went to hospital in Derby, where she had surgery the following day for cauda equina syndrome, which occurs when the nerves in the lower back are compressed.

"He was just explaining everything to everybody... we were all worried, obviously... I just can't thank him enough," Durber-Worrall said.

Hewitt, 60, began his healthcare career with the ambulance service as a cadet, before training as a nurse in 1984.

He has been involved in the event industry with St John's Ambulance Service and other organisations since.

"I love the variety," he said. "I like the fact that, certainly my job at the moment, every day I could be doing so many different things."

He still works at several festivals - Download is one of his favourites as not only does he love the work but he also likes the music.

"I think it was one of our busiest years," Hewitt said.

He told the BBC that because of the hilly landscape, people with joint problems often ended up with issues, but he also treated the "routine stuff".

Working at festivals also helped to keep his clinical practice "up to date" as his day job was more behind the scenes.

"The other aspect is that there is nothing like giving somebody care and attention with the [sound of] metal in the background," he added.

The Facebook post has more than 6,000 likes and about 300 comments.

Some people said they had had several encounters with him.

"Met him a couple of times over the last few years... and he has never failed to make me and my partner feel cared for and respected while also giving genuinely helpful advice AND make us laugh during difficult situations!!!" one person said.

"Both my partner and I knew we had hypermobility, but because of Keith's assistance I was able to get my Ehlers's Danlos (sic) diagnosis because I'd finally found out something wasn't quite right," another said.

"We saw him again this year after my partner had a shoulder dislocation and he was equally as brilliant."

Hewitt said seeing the comments made him emotional.

"There's two or three people I've seen at a couple of different festivals," he said.

"Some of them need to come two or three times during the week and it's just important that we are there for them really."

Aside from the medical treatment, he said laughter was the best medicine: "If I can get a laugh, I know I've cured some pain."

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