Pride of Australia ceremony recognises unsung heroes
They are ordinary people whose extraordinary achievements, bravery, humanity and community service today received national recognition.
They are ordinary people whose extraordinary achievements, bravery, humanity and community service today received national recognition.
People like dentist Mohit Tolani, 30, who started a mobile dental surgery after being confronted with a 17-year-old girl who needed to have every single one of her teeth removed.
He was just one of the people awarded today at the Pride of Australia National Editor’s Choice Awards which also saw the winners broadcast nationally on Sunrise on Channel 7.
Mr Tolani said he wanted to do more than “drill, fill and bill.” Simple questions of the devastated teenage girl in front of him led him to the conclusion she had never owned a toothbrush or ever cleaned her teeth.
Mr Tolani looked at her mother who said: “I don’t care what you do with her, I’m going shopping.”
“We had to remove every single one of her teeth,” said Mr Tolani, who was inspired to do more. Today he was awarded the Australia Post Award for his work teaching oral health in the community.
The 2018 Pride of Australia Award ceremony brought together the best of the nation’s unsung heroes whose extraordinary achievements this year have touched our hearts.
It is the fourteenth year of the prestigious prize which has told more than 20,000 moving and inspirational stories from across the country since 2005.
This year was no different. From an incredible array of true stories of heroism and humanity News Corps national editors chose their winners who were honoured at a special ceremony on the edge of Sydney Harbour.
Penny Fowler, chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times, said the Awards recognised “our community’s most brave, most generous and most compassionate. Those who give without asking for thanks.
“You epitomise the spirit of support and selflessness which we like to think embodies the Australian way,” she told the medallists.
The Pride of Australia Awards this year reached an audience of 21 million people. Ms Fowler said they were a way of “saying thank you — from all of us — in a very public way to our unsung heroes.”
Debbie Organ received her Pride of Australia National Editor’s Choice Award for a lifesaving act that began with a simple gesture — helping to rescue a homeless man’s dog.
John’s fox terrier Carrie had run away when he was attacked while sleeping rough. Ms Organ, who regularly saw John on her was to work in Pitt St Mall, posted a reward for the missing dog online.
“I’m a big animal lover,” Ms Organ said. “But then I sat down to talk to John.”
They became friends and Ms Organ wrote her name in Carrie’s collar in case she got lost again.
In 2017 John had a fall and was rushed to hospital but with no legal guardian to give consent, doctors could not operate.
Meanwhile Carrie was found by a stranger and Ms Organ was called. A frantic search eventually found John in hospital. Ms Organ went through the legal process to become his legal guardian and the surgery was performed.
Afterwards Ms Organ found accommodation for John in a nursing home near her home in Frenchs Forest in Sydney’s north and took Carrie home to live with her. They visit John regularly.
“I feel humbled to receive this, I was just helping a guy who lost his dog,” she said today.
“This award does shine a light on homelessness. If everyone helped one person we could change the world.”
Teenagers Amy Kenny and Hannah Keane won their award for an act of instinctive bravery. They we’re settling in for a movie night at the surf club at 8pm on a Saturday in January when a panicking woman raised the alarm.
Two tourists were struggling in the surf 60 metres offshore at Lorne in Victoria.
The girls, who met at nippers and had just renewed their bronze medallions, did not hesitate. Their bravery on that January evening earned the two off-duty lifesavers their Pride of Australia National Editor’s Choice Awards.
“Instinct kicked in and I ran into the water fully clothed,” said Amy. Hannah raised the alarm and followed straight after.
“By the time we got there one of the men was slipping in and out of consciousness,” said Amy. “His eyes were rolling back in his head.”
The girls, who were just 15 years old at the time, helped the men back to shore and put the worst affected man into the recovery position before paramedics arrived.
The school girls have now completed their silver medallions and are looking at careers as professional lifesavers.
The winners of two other awards could not make the ceremony because of the storms overnight in Sydney.
Melanie Tate from South Australia won her award for her work with children and young people. Her organisation’s motto says it all: “Because Kids Matter”.
Ms Tate, 39, started Puddle Jumpers to give children, particularly those who are not with their birth parents, family experiences.
“These include general elements like just spending some time away together, to quite specific elements such as riding a bike, going for a swim and having a birthday cake,” she said.
Since the organisation was formed six years ago it has received support from more than 500 regular volunteers and given thousands of children and their families unforgettable memories.
Retiree Lex Petersen was driving home from a Rotary Club lunch when he saw flames ripping through a house in Kingaroy in Queensland. Irrigation specialist Patrick Drinan saw the smoke from a couple of blocks away and rushed to help.
The two men saw Zach Fisher, then four, pressed against the bedroom window. His mother Sarah Bond looked on, paralysed with fear, knowing Zach was trapped along with Connor, 2, Bruce, 11 months, and their dad, Bruce Fisher Sr, 42. She had the door key in her hand.
“I took it off her so I could try and get into the house but we couldn’t,” Lex said.
“That’s about the time things got real,” Patrick added.
They smashed a window but the frightened child ran into the next bedroom, closer to the heart of the inferno.
After convincing Zach to stay still, they smashed that window and Lex held Patrick’s legs so that he could reach in and grab the boy.
“With the heat and the smoke that came out of the house, the chances of someone being alive were nil,” Patrick said. “We just had to try. It was a bloody miracle that he stood up. How he was still alive I don’t know.”
“But Sarah, she was just a horrible mess. She collapsed on the footpath, so I was trying to console her,” Lex said. Tragically Zach’s two siblings and his father died.
The two men have kept in touch with her to aid in her recovery. Their courage and humanity saw them win their Pride of Australia National Editor’s Choice Awards.
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