PERHAPS it's something to do with the nature of the job... that mail must get through. Or maybe it's a symptom of the necessary tenacity required of postmen everywhere, a quality that must regularly be displayed no matter what the weather or circumstances.

Whatever the magic ingredients, the Worcester News today salutes two postmen who both showed great presence of mind and not a little valour when destiny called.

Postie Keith Jones suffered crippling injuries following a head-on crash between his van and a car, yet still managed to save a victim of the same accident, while colleague Nick Davis pulled a drowning man from a stream. By any stretch of the imagination, both men showed great courage in the face of considerable difficulties.

Postmen are not usually associated with dramatic situations. The worst problems many face will invariably be the unfriendly dog racing down the garden path, a grim fact of working life that has - unjustly, in our view - almost become something approaching a music hall joke.

Nevertheless, it would appear that some of our unsung heroes do indeed hide their light under a bushel. Like Clark Kent doing a twirl in a phone box and transforming himself into Superman, it seems that certain postman are also capable of undergoing a similar process and achieving great things.

There are many negative aspects to modern life. But the actions of this pair of plucky posties show that the better side of human nature is never far from the surface. They certainly deserve our stamp of approval.