YOU’RE NEVER TOO YOUNG OR OLD TO BE A HERO
Aged five to 101, our inspiring nominees for the Amplifon Awards For Brave Britons 2022 highlight the very best in courage, perseverance and determination. Today we celebrate the final three categories in the contest, supported by the Daily Express. Winners will be chosen from 28 nominees at a virtual awards ceremony hosted by BBC One Breakfast presenter Rachel Burden and featuring Simon Weston as special guest. Falklands hero Simon, head of the judging panel, insists all the entrants are winners in their own right. JAMES MURRAY shares their inspirational stories
YOUNG HEROES HENRY COLLETT
Schoolboy Henry saved his father Jules’s life when he suffered a cardiac arrest while they were running together.
Henry, then 12, began CPR when his dad collapsed and called 999, keeping a cool head throughout the ordeal. He remembered life-saving skills taught at Hipperholme Grammar School, near Halifax,West Yorkshire, and at sea cadets.
As a passer-by continued CPR, Henry ran to get a defibrillator from nearby Old Brodleians Rugby Club.
Jules, 56, who was taken to hospital where he was in an induced coma for six days, says: “I’m incredibly proud of Henry. He is an exceptional young man.” Now 14, Henry jogs, walks and cycles with his dad and helps others learn life-saving skills. He says: “Everyone should learn CPR as you never know when you might need to use it.”
JACOB REDDY
Busker Jacob, 17, performed in all of England’s 51 cities in just 22 days to raise £10,000 for a children’s hospice where his baby brother, Joseph, had been cared for. Joseph died after contracting meningitis when he was a month old. Jacob’s father, Anthony, from Ribble Valley, Lancashire, drove Jacob around while his mum Maria helped plan the route.
At the end of the tour he played a celebratory concert for staff at Derian House Children’s Hospice at Chorley, Lancs.
ALBIE-JUNIOR THOMAS
Five-year-old amputee AlbieJunior Thomas became the youngest person to scale Snowdon – despite having a prosthetic left leg.
Albie was born with fibula hemimelia, a partial or total absence of the fibula bone in the calf, which meant he lost his left leg. Along with his dad Daniel, of Holywell, North Wales, he climbed the 3,560ft peak last November, battling the elements the day after Storm Arwen hit the area. Now the pair want to climb Ben Nevis.
GABRIEL CLARK
When he painted a hand-made wooden bowl with the colours of Ukraine, Gabriel Clark’s incredible woodworking skills went viral.
The 12-year-old from Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, asked his followers to donate £1 for Ukraine through a Just Giving page.
He raised £250,000 and later presented Princess Anne with a bowl.