WHEN you return from a package holiday on the Costa del Sol, most of us want to put the kettle on and slide into an easy chair.

Philip Brown, his girlfriend Thelma Haverty and their friend David Weaver won't have had the chance, though, and with good reason.

Instead, they've come home to a hero's welcome, today, after all three were wounded saving a woman from a gun-toting maniac in a bar.

In truth, they can count themselves lucky that they're returning at all.

The gunman shot 50-year-old Philip in the groin and lower abdomen, then hit Thelma, 54, in the leg and father-of-five David, 53, in the foot as he tried to drag his friends to safety.

We've speculated before what prompts someone to act in such circumstances.

The sight and sound of the drama unfolding before them will have triggered a surge of adrenaline that none of them will have been able to control.

But the primal instinct to fight for survival lasts only a second or two before the priority turns to flight.

In other words, these three heroes stepped beyond what any of us might naturally expect in order to protect a woman none of them knew.

We might all ask ourselves whether we'd have been able to do the same.

The truth is that the vast majority of us will never find out - and thank goodness that's the case.

It does, however, restore your faith in human nature.

For that, and the extraordinary courage each showed, let's all raise a glass to them today.