Hero brother cut our stricken parents free from submerged car with a penknife but couldn’t save them, says Phil Spencer

PHIL Spencer has said his hero brother cut their stricken parents free from the submerged car with a penknife but couldn’t save them.

The TV presenter paid tribute to mum Anne, 82, and dad Richard, known to friends and family as David, 89, today after the tragic crash was revealed.

The Location, Location, Location star was grieving last night after the car his parents were travelling in careered into a river on the family farm where Phil he up.

And Phil, 53, has now revealed his brother desperately pulled them from the vehicle in a bid to save their lives.

Sharing a picture of the couple on Instagram, he said: “As a family, we are all trying to hold onto the fact Mum and Dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one.

“Which is a blessing in itself.

“The car, going very slowly, toppled over a bridge on the farm drive, upside down into the river.

“There were no physical injuries and I very much doubt they would have even fought it – they would have held hands under the water and quietly slipped away.

“Their carer was in the car and managed to climb out of a back window so the alarm was raised quite quickly.

“As many farmers do – my brother had a penknife and so was able to cut the seat belts – he pulled them out of the river but they never regained consciousness.

“Although desperately sad and shocked beyond all belief – all family are clear that if there can ever be such a thing as having a “good end” – this was it.”

Presenter Phil went on to recall one of the heartbreaking last conversations he had with his mother.

He said: “Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), Mum’s Parkinson’s and Dad’s Dementia had been worsening and the long term future was set to be a challenge.

“So much so that Mum said to me only a week ago that she had resigned to thinking “now it looks like we will probably go together”. And so they did.”

He finished his statement by adding: “It feels horrendous right now, but after almost 60 years of marriage – to die together on the farm they so loved will, I know, be a comfort in the future.

“Mum and Dad are together which is precisely where they would have wanted to be.”

Phil’s co-host and friend Kirstie Allsopp – who today paid tribute to David and Anne – was one of the first to comment.

She wrote: “Such a brave and loving statement and so typical of you & your lovely family. So many people have you all in their thoughts and prayers. xxx.”

David and Anne were on their way to a local pub for lunch on Friday when their car veered off the access road into a shallow tributary river running through their estate.

Police and the fire brigade raced to the scene while an air ambulance landed on the farm at Littlebourne, near Canterbury, Kent.

Richard and Anne were pulled out and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead and she later died.

Kirstie said last night: “I’ve spoken to Phil and it’s tragic for the Spencer family, but his parents were together and that’s something that is a great source of solace to them all.

“The family is very loving and close. There are four children, Phil, Robert, Caryn and Helen, and they had eight grandchildren.

“This is awful for all of the family, but they were together at the end and they were lovely people.

“They were on their way to the pub on a Friday afternoon in Kent, where they lived — they were in the place they loved, with the person they loved. They were both people of Christian faith.

“Phil and his siblings are all consoling each other at this difficult time.”

Phil, who lives in Hampshire with wife Fiona and their two children, has previously spoken fondly of being a farmer’s son, and having an idyllic childhood.

He has a holiday cottage on the site, which his father ran before handing over to eldest son Robert.