Pride of Australia 2018: Dr Bill Christie spent his final moments protecting his grandson
IT’S the breathtaking heroism in the hours before his death that makes Dr Bill Christie’s story so heartbreaking. After a crash which ultimately took his life, the 75-year-old held his grandson to his chest, clinging to life so the little boy didn’t wander off and risk further injury.
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IT’S the breathtaking heroism in the hours before his death that makes Dr Bill Christie’s story so heartbreaking.
Nominated posthumously for a Pride of Australia award, Dr Christie died after the 4WD he was in careered down an embankment on a Gundy farm in the NSW Upper Hunter.
The crash killed not only Dr Christie, 75, but his son Paul, 42, and real estate agent Adam O’Regan.
But for eight long hours, the retired radiologist held his five-year-old grandson Hugh to his chest, clinging to life so the little boy didn’t wander off and risk further injury.
Fighting back the tears his widow Dr Wendy Christie, who flew in from Mount Tamborine to collect his medal today, said: “Bill was generous, he was community spirited. It’s nice that he has got this recognition ... his grandson will appreciate it.
“It would have been a superhuman effort to do what he did given his injuries.
“He would have been gratified (by the award) had he known.”
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The Pride of Australia awards honour ordinary Australians thrust by fate into life and death situations, police officers, volunteer firefighters, children who have displayed courage beyond their years, those who have raised untold thousands for charity and selfless individuals who have spent their lives in the service of others and the protection of animals.
Inspired by the Liberty Medal established by the New York Post in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Pride of Australia, championed by the Daily Telegraph, underpins the notion there is no greater measure of a society’s strength than its ability to recognise, learn from and reward its true heroes.
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