Young lifesaver hailed as hero
Published: February 9, 2007
A young girl is being called a hero after she dragged her dying grandfather to shore through windy and rocky conditions.
Although medics could not save him, the tragic event turned 12-year-old Alicia White, a trainee lifeguard, into a bona fide lifesaver.
White’s mother spotted her father-in-law tip out of his kayak while the family were at Wairarapa’s Castle Point beach in December.
But instead of calling to her husband to rescue him, she yelled for her daughter as she had been training to become a lifeguard.
“She just did it so naturally, she just went straight away. There was no questions,” says Hillary White.
White swam to find her grandfather who was in the throes of a heart attack. She told him to hold on to the kayak as she paddled him to shore.
“[It was] 200 metres I suppose…but it seemed forever cos the wind out there was quite gusty,” says White.
While paddling she joked with him to relax him, but just as she had towed her 100kg grandfather to the beach, he took a turn for the worst and collapsed.
Although medics were unable to revive him, White is being hailed a hero at her local surf club.
“It could’ve been very tragic. They could’ve lost him and never found him again,” says Paekakariki Surf Club spokesperson Steve Dickson.
White says she does not think of herself as a hero, but despite the tragedy, is aiming to become a fully fledged lifeguard.
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