Wales resident and grandfather, Paul Marshallsea, saved beachgoers from a potential shark attack while in Queensland this past January, but the heroic act wasn’t enough to save the 62-year-old man or his wife’s job.

Marshallsea, can be seen on the now viral video pulling a six-foot shark away from the shore after it made an unwelcomed appearance at Caloundra Beach this past January.

Beach-goers were pleased, as the waters are frequented by young children according to Wales Online, but Marshallsea’s employer, Welsh Charity, Pant and Dowlais Boys & Girls Club, were not.

Marshallsea, Project Coordinator for the charity and his wife, Wendy, 56, Senior Youth Worker and Event Manager, were both unceremoniously fired after being caught traveling abroad when their employer believed that both were on sick leave because of work-related stress. The charity stated that the couple had not been into work since April according to My Fox 8.

Marshallsea told Wales Online that after years of service to the charity, he and his wife are disappointed by the firing.

“If I hadn’t gone in to save the kids on that beach that day my wife and I would still have a job. You think being in charge and running a children’s charity, they would have tapped me on the back. Where do I now get a job? There’s not much call for shark-wrestlers in Merthyr Tydfil,” said Marshallsea.

The couple told Wales Online that they traveled to Austrailia after a doctor advisory to go on holiday. The pair said they were enjoining a barbeque with friends with they heard the pleas to help with a shark. Marshallsea was reportedly one of the two men who were almost bitten after grabbing the shark’s tail to encourage it to swim back out to sea.

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