Pride of Birmingham 2023: Emergency Services Deena Evans and Michael Hipgrave

Deena Evans and Michael Hipgrave were responding with two police officers to a wellness check on a man in Wolverhampton because of concerns about his safety.

Michael Smith’s mother had called 999 because he was not answering her calls. When Deena, 41, stepped inside, Michael Smith lunged at her with eight-inch kitchen knives in each hand, plunging one into her chest while slashing her with the other. One blade punctured her left lung before crewmate Michael, 52, threw himself between Smith and Deena and received a stab wound to his back before police Tasered the attacker.

Deena said: "Michael’s wound lines up directly with my heart. If he hadn’t stepped in front of me, that second stab wound would have gone into my heart." Two years on she still struggles following the attack in July 2020. The mum-of-three said: "I have flashbacks . Physically, there is still pain, but the mental scars are the hardest.” But she says she never once thought of abandoning her colleagues on the front line and along with Michael, returned to work 12 months later.

She said “It has been hard coming back and there are days where I think I can’t do this, but I’ve never once thought about leaving the job I love. Why should I let him win?” Michael added: "It’s not a job to me, it’s my life and I’m not going to let this man spoil the rest of my life. He’s taken a year of it and I want to go back to the job I love, I love helping people.” Smith was jailed for nine years for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.