DANIEL AND MICHELLE MARRAN

Medallists

Young brave hearts

It was a regular Thursday evening last March when Louise Marran went about her routine of getting her two kids into the car in the garage of their Gold Coast home.

First she hopped in and turned on the engine so the airconditioning would start running, then she got out to help Daniel, 4, and Michelle, 7 into their car seats.

But as she stepped out of the car, things went rapidly wrong.

First Daniel shut the door on his little fingers. Then, as Marran pulled open the door to go to his aid, the car started reversing into her in the small garage, trapping her arm and threatening to crush her whole body.

“I was about 20-centimetres from the back concrete wall and calculated I had about five-seconds before I was crushed completely,” she says.

“I started screaming instructions to my children. My son jumped over the front seat and switched the car off and my daughter jumped out of the car and ran down the street to get help.

“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I’d be here. They were very brave.”

Despite being just four-years-old, Daniel was fascinated by cars and had always taken a great interest in how their car operated.

Marran believes it was that fascination that saved her life.

“He knew exactly where the car’s off switch was. He didn’t panic. He just jumped over the seats and pressed the button without hesitation,” the proud mother says.

Michelle’s role was much more out of character — the normally quiet, reserved child suddenly finding a very loud voice to scream for help.

“She sprinted down the street, screaming for help and giving people a clear description of what had happened,” Marran says. “They came running very quickly in response.”

The children’s immediate reaction to their mother’s predicament not only saved her life, it also reduced the severity of the injuries she suffered.

Although her crushed arm needed surgery to repair the extensive nerve damage, Marran has since regained full mobility a full six months earlier than doctors had expected.

The ordeal also brought the family even closer together — Marran said she is in awe of her two little heroes.

“I always thought they were pretty special but I didn’t realise just how amazing they were,” she says.

They also led Marran to change her car routine. “Now I don’t turn the engine on, until everyone’s in and the door’s shut,” she says.

— Robyn Ironside

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DESLEIGH JONES

Medallist

Diving to a drowning stranger’s aid

When Desleigh Jones heard cries for help as she walked across Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge in May 2015, her instincts kicked in.

Stripping off and diving into the swirling river to race to a drowning man’s aid, Jones, along with two other bystanders held his head above the water until help arrived.

“I can still hear him groaning,” Jones says. “I didn’t appreciate how heavy a person could be in the water fully clothed.”

The mum-of-two had recently completed a surf life saving bronze medallion, which she credits with her instinctive dive.

Jones has gone on to train as a swimming instructor and is an advocate for water safety.

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SELENA WOOL

Medallist

Helping parents through grief

Losing twins in the second trimester of her pregnancy and then losing a son in the same way 13 months later devastated Selena Wool.

But she turned her grief into a project — Little Lionhearts — to help others dealing with pregnancy loss.

With a huge lack of CuddleCots — a specially designed cot that allows parents to spend unlimited time and bond with a baby after their passing — in hospitals despite a huge demand, they have raised funds for an additional three machines, worth $15,000 each.

Little Lionhearts also provides memory boxes containing photo frames, a journal, plus toy, hand and footprint cards and more to grieving parents.

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FRANKLIN PLAYSTED

Medallist

Keeping his younger brother safe

If it wasn’t for Franklin Playsted’s quick thinking, his younger brother Ray would no longer be alive.

Ray, 11 months and just walking, had followed his older siblings into the backyard unbeknown to his parents.

Toppling into a full bucket of water, Ray wouldn’t have survived had Franklin, 4, not pulled his brother quickly out and called his parents for help.

“We ran outside to find Ray blue and unconscious on the ground,” says the boys’ mother, Natalie.

“It seemed like forever, but it was probably only about 90 seconds later, Ray came around and started breathing ... it could have been the most tragic day of our lives.”

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HAMISH FINLAYSON

Medallist

Apps that make a difference

He’s only 12 years old and suffers from autism but Hamish Finlayson has not only created four successful apps, he’s had a meeting with Barack Obama.

Finlayson was the youngest entrepreneur invited to the US President’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit last year.

The pre-teen’s apps combine not only his passion for technology but also his desire to make the world a better place.

They include TripleT&ASD, which has quizzes and tips to help those suffering with autism as well those wanting to learn about the disorder, and LitterbugSmash, a game which sees players helping a cartoon turtle clean up our oceans.

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TANI STUBBS

Nominee

Providing for less fortunate

Two years ago Tani Stubbs was starting her final year of high school when she embarked on a project which has changed thousands of lives.

At a time of life when most students are busy juggling school, work and a hectic social calendar, Stubbs raised more than $1 million worth of school supplies to furnish Tupou High School in Tonga, a school with 800 students, but no desks or chairs.

After Stubbs’ dad Bradley stopped for a chat in the street with Tonga school principal Rev Tu’ipulotu Finau, she realised her calling in life.

“Dad came home and told me what he’d heard — that they had no desks or chairs in the school,” she says.

“I said, ‘Leave it to me’, and that’s how the project started.”

Stubbs began when she discovered her school was refurbishing, with the old furniture to be discarded.

“I contacted 15 schools across the Gold Coast and Brisbane and took all of the desks and chairs out of schools they were getting rid of.”

Having sourced the supplies, she then had the challenge of getting the stack of furniture from the Gold Coast to the Tonga school yards. She need to store them until they could get shipped, placing a shipping container in a friend’s Brisbane backyard.

“We sent over enough desks and chairs to furnish three schools of 1000 students. And we sent equipment and supplies to rebuild a hospital that was taken out by a cyclone.”

Today Stubbs, 20, studies business management at Bond University and runs her one-woman not-for-profit organisation Everyone Deserves Global Education (EDGE).

Stubbs says she’s had some people dismiss her as being too young but she refuses to take no for an answer.

“I just had to prove I wasn’t a typical 17-year-old,” she says. “A lot of the time I made phone calls or emails so I broke down the barriers before they met me.

“Ever since I was little I knew I was going to change the world.”

— Rod Chester

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HELEN ZAHOS

Nominee

Nurse in a crisis

When disaster strikes outside our borders, most of us shake our heads in helplessness. But Nurse Helen Zahos steps in.

Currently based in the emergency ward of the Gold Coast University Hospital, Pride of Australia nominee Zahos has been on hand to help during some of the worst tragedies to strike the world in the past few years.

Zahos was volunteering with the St John Ambulance in the Northern Territory when she was on hand to treat victims of the Bali bombings.

Three years ago, she joined the Australian medics helping overseas disaster efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, where nearly 2 million people where left homeless and the death toll climbed to more than 6000.

Two years later, she again stepped forward. First in Nepal, which was hit by a devastating earthquake in April. Then with the Syrian refugee crisis, working both on the island of Lesbos, where up to 5000 refugees were arriving a day, and at the border of Greece and Yugoslavia.

Zahos has also worked on Christmas Island and Nauru.

Each experience of being at the front line of a major disaster left Zahos with memories, both of the events and the people.

“I didn’t know a lot about refugees before I went to Christmas Island,” she says of her arrival.

“There were stories of everyday people who had bombs dropped around them. It really opened my eyes. I had no idea until I sat down and actually spoke to refugees.

“I think it’s easy to come to conclusions when you’re sitting on your own in a comfortable, safe living environment to look at something on the news and make assumptions.

“But when you actually meet someone who has been through these horrendous experience ...” she says, her voice trailing off as she becomes lost in her thoughts.

Zahos spent three months with Doctors of the World in 2014 and witnessed life changing events.

One was on Lesbos, where the coast guard and authorities were struggling to cope with the influx of up to 5000 refugees a day.

On October 28, a wooden boat sank in rough seas off the island’s north coast. The death toll was chilling: 11 children and 27 adults, some in wheelchairs.

Zahos worked through the night treating the injured, and aiding those watching their loved ones pass away.

“It’s easy to come to conclusions when you’re sitting on your own in a comfortable, safe living environment.” Zahos on the assumptions made about people in need

“A massive event like that would be on the news for days on end but it didn’t even make the news here,” she says in disbelief of the way the day was overlooked in the face of the wider refugee crisis.

In contrast, when she came back from Nepal, she found the biggest story in Australia was Johnny Depp not quarantining his dogs.

“I had a mother come up to me every day in Nepal showing me a picture of her daughter saying, ‘she’s still buried come and get her’.”

In the last six weeks of refugee crisis volunteer work, she was in an area where the UN Refugee Agency had already pulled out and had a day she will never forget.

Zahos took a call saying a man had accidentally fallen on to train tracks and was on fire.

“You get a call like that and the doctor and I raced down there,” she recalls of the day.

Sadly, the man died. After Zahos comforted his family and assisted officers, she walked back, trying to avoid the tear gas, rubber bullets and water canons being sprayed onto the crowd of protesters.

“It’s all very heightened but after days on end of that heightened environment you get used to it, it’s the norm,” she says.

It was then a protester mistook the blue vest she wore identifying her as an aid worker as the blue vest of a police officer and hit her in the face with a metal pole.

The impact left her with a broken jaw and blood streaming from a wound in her mouth.

“A female refugee came to my assistance and started yelling at him. He dropped the pole and said sorry.”

Zahos is grateful her colleagues nominated her through the Pride of Australia process but says her reward comes from helping those in crisis.

— Rod Chester

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FELICITY GUY

Medallist

Fearless in the face of danger

A day off from school turned into high drama for eight-year-old Felicity Guy.

Having not felt well, she was at home with mum Kirby, brother Josh, 4, and sister Emily, 2, when a man allegedly broke into their home in Ingham and attempted to snatch her young brother.

While her mum, who was then 37 weeks pregnant with her fourth child, attempted to keep hold of Josh, quick thinking Felicity sprang into action. First calling 000, then her father.

Felicity then ran to the neighbours and managed to clearly describe what was happening.

“Felicity was as brave as any adult might have been that day,” proud mum Kirby says of her now 10-year-old hero daughter.

“I don’t think she understands why what she did was such a big deal. I tried to explain to her about the other amazing people who have got this medal in the past and she just says, ‘Why am I as good as them?’”

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GLORIA STEENSEN

Medallist

Anti-violence campaigner

“Just let it go mate.” These were the last words spoken by one-punch victim Bruce Steensen, 53, before his death in 2014.

And these are the words his mother, Gloria Steensen, has used to start a campaign aimed at eradicating alcohol-fuelled violence.

Steensen has distributed beer mats, bar runners, drink coasters, stubbie holders and more emblazoned with “just let it go mate” to pubs and clubs Australia-wide, with an additional reminder that just one punch can kill.

The great-grandmother also campaigns within the community to raise awareness around the issue. “I just don’t want to see other families go through what we’ve been through,” she says. “If I could get just one family safe, then Bruce didn’t die in vain.”

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JENNIFER SPENCER

Medallist

Fighting for justice

The townspeople of Oakey have been in the fight of their lives — and Jennifer Spencer has been one of the residents leading the charge.

For four years, the town’s entire water supply was supplemented with bore water which had been contaminated via a nearby army aviation base.

But when residents aired their concerns about health risks and falling land value, they hit plenty of roadblocks in their quest for justice.

Spencer, who had bought now worthless land in Oakey to train race horses, refused to lie down without a fight.

She not only went to war with the Defence Department. Spencer has set up an online support group, rallied to meet politicians and forced the department to raise funds for blood tests and counselling for those affected.

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AGUEK NYOK

Medallist

Real life hero

A father of four, taxi driver Aguek Nyok didn't hesitate when he saw a bus ablaze in Moorooka, with desperate passengers beating their fists against the doors which had jammed shut.

Running to their rescue, Nyok repeatedly kicked in the middle door of the bus, allowing passengers — including children — to escape to safety.

The blaze had begun when an “incendiary device” was thrown at the bus driver, Manmeet Alisher.

Sadly, Alisher did not survive and a man is currently facing charges of murder, arson and 11 counts of attempted murder.

Saying “the biggest honour (is) saving the lives of people, it’s priceless”, the South Sudanese refugee is now planning to return home to attempt to locate his missing brother.

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Heroes honoured

Watch our medallists receive their well-deserved awards in the video below.

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