The child soldier turned lawyer, the shark attack rescuer and a motorist who saved strangers from certain death
OUR greatest heroes are often unsung. They’re the ones who step up when needed, without thinking. Today, The Daily Telegraph and Australia recognised eight special people. Here are their stories told through eight unique videos.
NSW
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OUR greatest heroes are often unsung. They’re the ones who step up when needed, who without hesitation do what needs to be done, without thinking about it. And in their words and deeds these quiet heroes make our communities safer and our society stronger.
But The Pride Of Australia awards is their time to shine, our way of saying “thanks” to those who have given so much.
Begun 12 years ago and inspired by the Liberty Medal established by the New York Post in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Pride of Australia awards celebrate a group of ordinary people who have each done extraordinary things, either as part of a formal or informal team, or as individuals.
At a gala event today, hosted by Sandra Sully, those achievements were recognised with the presentation of the Pride of Australia Medals to those nominees selected as our finest this year.
WATER POLICE
They’re the awesome foursome who spent more than 24 hours on raging seas to rescue boats in distress during a fearsome storm last January.
But for Port Stephens NSW Police Marine Area Command co-ordinator Sgt Tony Hogg and his three crew members Matthew Gray, Andrew Parker and Nick Leach making sure four very vulnerable boats and their passengers were safe that fateful day was all in a day’s work.
The wind was blowing up to 60 knots (110km/h) and they were operating up to 40 nautical miles (75km) off the coast, but the quartet got the job done, and got people home safe.
KYLIE SMITH
Quakers Hill mother of two Kylie Smith had a terrible time after her youngest son was born. She battled post-natal depression and post-traumatic stress, but when she read of celebrity TV presenter Charlotte Dawson taking her own life, Kylie decided to act.
Despite her own battles she established Embracing Arms, an organisation to help support women suffering depression and anxiety which began as a Facebook group, graduated to coffee club and has continued to evolve from there, with all kinds of informal support for women having a tough time.
KATH KOSCHEL
Not once, but twice, Kath Koschel has broken her back. The first time she was playing cricket for NSW, the second she was training for an ironman competition.
Learning to walk again didn’t break her. But finding the body of her partner Jim after he’d taken his own life almost did.
But she’d taught herself to walk again physically, so Kath managed it mentally, and now shares her story with other people with their own mountains to climb, giving speeches to various groups and offering support via her Kindness Factory movement.
DENG ADUT
His life reads like a prize-winning novel, but Sudanese refugee and former child soldier-turned-legal eagle Deng Adut has just got on with the job.
He didn’t even understand English when he arrived, but Deng is now a practising lawyer and proud community advocate who has overcome a brutal childhood which saw him kidnapped from his family farm as a six-year-old and made to fight in the Sudanese civil war, before he hid in a corn sack and was smuggled out of the country where he eventually made his way to Australia.
TRAVIS BOLAND
He’s just an ordinary builder, a father of four, who works hard to make a living. And luckily Travis Boland was driving home to Parkes from some weekend work near Port Macquarie when he saw the four-wheel-drive in front of him leave the road and take a tumble.
The accident occurred near the central western NSW town of Yeoval and Boland was the only one around. Without thinking he stopped and dragged the two occupants out of the 4WD which then burst into flame, saving the life of a nine-year-old boy and his dad.
And impressing local police who noted that if he hadn’t taken the actions he did, the pair in the car “certainly would have died”.
JOEL TRIST
It’s the stuff of nightmares. Brett Connellan was surfing off Bombo Beach at Kiama in March this year when a shark went for him, dragging Brett away form his board, leaving him flailing, injured in the water.
His mate Joel Trist was 100m away but quickly paddled over and hauled the badly injured Brett aboard his surfboard, getting off himself to help swim Brett to safety. Despite being caught in a rip, Joel kept swimming — he never gave up, eventually getting his mate back to the beach and off to hospital, certainly saving his life.
LILLY LYONS
She’s just 14, but Liverpool teen Lilly Lyons has already battled more than any of us should ever have to.
Despite being the victim of sexual abuse as a youngster, Lilly is now a loud and proud advocate for young people. She does a weekly community radio show, is a member of the YMCA NSW Youth Parliament, an ambassador for Save The Children, and has launched a pilot bullying program at her high school.
It cost her time having fun with her friends, but Lilly is absolutely dedicated to making the world better for youngsters everywhere.
THE AH CHONG FAMILY
They stayed calm in the face of madness. And saved a mate’s life in the process. When the pair saw their neighbour, Minto grandfather Wayne Greenhalgh, running towards their car bleeding the pair realised he was being chased by a madman with a machete in a random terror attack.
Despite the risks to their own life and limbs, Sivei Ah Chong and his son Derek grabbed a broomstick and fence paling and took on the attacker themselves, giving a badly injured Mr Greenhalgh time to take refuge in a nearby hair salon operated out of a garage, and saving his life in the process.
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‘Feel numb’: Jewish MP breaks silence after nurses’ vile rant
Jewish MP Mike Freelander, a paediatric doctor, has broken his silence on rising anti-Semitism, saying a video of nurses claiming to kill Israeli patients left him ‘numb’.