Alison

 Ten days ago, Alison Wilson was assaulted in Widnes, Cheshire. Last Friday, as a direct result of her injuries, she died in a hospital bed. She was just thirty six years old. 

Returning home with a male friend after a Sunday night visit to a local pub, she came across a man and woman arguing angrily in the street. A baby was present too. Rather than walking on by,  Alison's "Good Samaritan" instinct surfaced and - probably without thinking -  she intervened in an attempt to break up the unknown couple's violent row. It was a fatal mistake.

Twenty seven year old Stephen Duggan now turned his anger on Alison and her male friend. She was beaten to the ground, sustaining a serious head injury which was the direct  cause of her  death.

It reminded me of something that happened when I was eighteen. It was a Saturday night and I was in the little Yorkshire coastal town of Hornsea. I had said good night to my girlfriend and  I was making my way homewards through Marketplace. There were few pedestrians around but on the other side of the street an almighty row was in full swing between a man and a woman. They were twenty-somethings.

I wanted to walk on by but then he started punching her around the head and she fell to her knees. I rushed over and grabbed his arm to prevent more blows raining in and then I became part of the altercation. Not only was he yelling at me but bizarrely the woman on the ground also started on me. I was pushed into the street and stumbled down as a taxi approached.

I remember rolling into the gutter as the taxi's wheels raced past me - a foot away from my head. By now two or three other passers by were involved and the rowing couple slunk away - their fire already turning to embers.

But I have always remembered those ten seconds very clearly. My life could easily have ended that Saturday night because I chose to do the right thing - instead of walking by like the priest and the Levite in that famous parable. That incident from long ago has always made me very cautious about intervening whenever strangers are involved. Doing the right thing can sometimes be the wrong thing. And it makes me feel especially sorry for  poor Alison Wilson and the loved ones who grieve her passing.

A family statement read: "We are truly devastated. Alison was a beautiful, caring, loving, mother, daughter, partner, sister, sister-in-law and aunty. She was taken away from us too early for trying to help another person in distress."