I'm still friends with the woman I saved in the Tunisian beach attacks

Telegraph

25-05-2025

When crazed gunman Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on unsuspecting tourists enjoying the sun in a luxury Tunisian beach resort, those who weren't shot before they could escape, ran for their lives.
Yet for holidaymaker Allen Pembroke, the thought of leaving injured people on the beach wasn't an option. After ensuring the safety of his wife, he returned, running towards the horror, not away from it.
That selfless decision would save the life of Cheryl Mellor, who'd been shot and lay badly injured on the beach.
Her husband, Stephen, was one of 38 victims gunned down that day on June 26 2015 in the ISIS-inspired attack that remains one of the deadliest Islamist attacks in recent history. Thirty of the victims were British.
Cheryl survived, thanks to the bravery and calm actions of Allen, then an NHS volunteer first-responder from Essex. Two years later, in 2017, he received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.
But nearly a decade on, Allen, now 71 and working part-time at a university after a successful career pioneering the first electric cabs in London – brushes off the title of 'hero' with typical modesty.
'Given the same set of circumstances – god forbid – I'd do it again,' he says . 'I didn't want the exposure it brought. I just can't stand injustice or people being hurt.'
Sense of unease
Allen and his then-wife Tracy had holidayed twice before at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse. They deliberately avoided the school holidays to enjoy the resort at a quieter, more affordable time.
At the start of the holiday Allen had tipped the staffer in charge of the sunbeds so he could bathe near the front of the beach each day.
But something didn't sit right as the holiday neared its end.
'The previous day, I'd said to Tracy, my ex-wife, 'what's he doing?' because the sunbed guy was looking up and down the beach, ducking under umbrellas. His behaviour was really unusual. I'm sure he must have known.
'Now, he wasn't there at all. None of the locals were.
'The vendors who sold fake glasses and cheap tat on the beach had disappeared.
'Every day the Police were up and down the beach, either on their lovely Arab horses or on their quad bikes. You could set your clock by it. Bear in mind this was day six of seven and we'd been there twice before.
'I just did not feel comfortable.'
That feeling proved tragically accurate the next day.
A war zone
'My gut was screaming at me that something wasn't right so when I heard the first shot, I knew it was gunfire. I grabbed Tracy. She said 'It's fireworks'. I said, 'No it's not' and we started to run.
'The bullets were literally whizzing over our heads. They were so close to us you could hear the sound and people were screaming. I could see the gunman with his weapon as I looked over my shoulder but it was for such a brief moment. It was such a blur.'
As others ran to safety, Allen made sure Tracy was secure in their room – then did something few would have dared.
'I threw Tracy into the room and stood there for five or ten seconds and thought I knew I could help,' he recalls. 'I said to Tracy 'I'm going back out'. She said, 'no you're not'. I told her, 'Just stay there, lay on the floor, lock the door, don't open it,' and then I ran from the room before she could say anything else.'
By now, the resort had become a nightmare.
'As I was running back towards the incident there were still people running off the beach but unfortunately, by then, there were deceased bodies on the beach. I started crawling around in the sand on my belly, looking for life. There was blood and bodies everywhere. It was like a war zone.
'I was trying to feel for a pulse but no one was alive. Then I touched this one woman and she sort of murmured. Her face was covered in sand and her hand and forearm was about two metres away from her body, detached. It had been blown off completely.
'I asked her, 'Do you speak English?' My name is Allen. I'm here to help,' she replied, 'yes I'm Cheryl.' I told her, 'I'm here to help you'.'
Life-saving skills
Cheryl had suffered devastating injuries and lost a critical amount of blood. But she was alive – and she could speak. Allen did what he could with the meagre supplies he could find.
After pouring water over her face and giving her a drink, Allen found a scarf which he wrapped her arm up in and, seeing she had a badly injured leg, he wrapped a towel around that too.
To Allen's horror and disgust, as he helped Cheryl he saw a local going through the bags of dead holidaymakers and screamed at him to leave.
'The whole time Cheryl was saying, 'check my husband. Check my husband Stephen'.
'She was laying flat, I was sort of kneeling next to her and I could see he was on the other side of the sunbed and unfortunately I could see he'd been shot several times and he hadn't survived.
'I jumped across after I'd helped her to look at him. I said, 'do you really want to know?' She said, 'please tell me.' I replied 'unfortunately, he's gone.''
Knowing the gunman was still nearby, Allen improvised again to protect her. 'I told her I was going to carry her away from this point but she didn't want to leave. So I told her she needed to 'play dead'. I tipped some sunbeds over there and threw debris over her.
'By then the guy was by the swimming pool and moving onto the main body of the hotel where he was shooting and grenades. It seemed like an eternity at the time even though it was probably 15 to 20 minutes.'
Returning to the hotel room, Allen was hit by another shock.
'I went back to the room I'd left Tracy in and I was banging on the door but she wasn't there. She'd left a note which said she was scared and that she'd gone to reception where I later found her.'
Time is a healer
Time, Allen says, has helped him process what happened.
'I've had, in the past, a few dreams about it but I compartmentalise things,' he explains. 'I've always been very good at sort of putting things in boxes and closing the lid and that's exactly what I did. I buried it.'
He and Tracy never returned on holiday together. They have since divorced. Despite the trauma, Allen says he never needed counselling – and didn't seek compensation.
'There is one thing that sticks in my mind from that day – the sight of one of the bodies – but out of respect for the relatives I won't go into detail. I've never taken a penny in compensation, nor would I.'
He takes some small comfort from the fact that extremist Rezgui, a 22-year-old electrical student, was shot dead by police that day – despite wishing the police had done more to help the victims in the first place.
He says: 'I am glad he was killed because he would have gone to court otherwise and I don't know what the penalties are in Tunisia, but if that had been the UK he'd still be alive with his colour TV, cigarettes, getting his conjugal visits – all paid for by the taxpayers, of course.'
What does linger is anger – particularly towards TUI UK, the tour operator.
Like the families of many of the victims, Allen believes they were responsible for safety and security breaches at the hotel, which the company has always denied.
After the attack, they settled with some of the families out of court, reaching a settlement 'without admission of liability or fault'.
Allen insists: 'TUI abdicated all responsibility and for that, I feel they have blood on their hands. Had TUI intervened and told people there had been another incident shortly before at a museum people would have had a choice as to whether to go.'
Ongoing friendship
His friendship with Cheryl, however, remains intact – and deeply meaningful. He says: 'For the first two or three years we would ring or text.
'I find a lot of peace in riding my motorbike and last summer I drove down to the south of Cornwall to have lunch with her. She sent me a lovely, very personal, letter. It was absolutely wonderful and one that I will cherish and keep forever.
'We always send a Christmas card. We will never forget each other and I'm sure we will remain friends but time does heal.'
In a new documentary on Prime Video called Surviving The Tunisia Beach Attack, Allen – one of several survivors who share their stories – reads out that very letter.
'You put your own life at risk to come and help me and my husband, even though shots were being fired,' Cheryl writes.
Allen downplays it all. 'I wish I could have done more.' Though retired from the NHS, after losing colleagues and relatives during Covid, Allen hasn't stopped helping others. Just six weeks ago, he crossed traffic in his car to shield an elderly woman who'd fallen into the road. He then waited three hours with her for an ambulance to come.
His sister, he says, calls him 'a cat with nine lives'.
'Only, she tells me you've probably already used about seven,' he jokes. 'She says my job in life is to help people.'
And what about luck?
'I don't see myself as lucky in the sense that I've not ever won the lottery or anything. I just don't think it's my time yet. I think there's a lot of good to be done in the world but I don't want anything out of it.
'I'll never return to Tunisia – there are too many other places to see and the Police and locals didn't do enough to help – but I intend to do a lot more travelling on my bike.'
As for that fateful moment on the beach, he says: 'People always ask me 'Why did you go back?' Well, it was just instinctual, I suppose. I went back because it was the right thing to do but the real heroes are the ones like Cheryl. She saw her husband shot, pulled through and was able to go back to work.'
Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack, Prime Video, May 25, produced by Yeti Television