Commendations after canal rescue
AGROUP of heroic Widnes schoolboys have received bravery awards from the police after they rescued a mum and her five-monthold baby from a canal after they fell in trying to escape from swans.
The boys, aged between 11 and 14, sprang into action at Spike Island in West Bank, Widnes, after hearing the calls of fouryear-old Reya Wang.
Mum Lifei and baby sister Eva, five months, had plunged into the water after being chased by swans at around 4.30pm on December 7.
Lifei told how the pram, carrying her daughter Eva, rolled into the canal after the family were chased by swans and she jumped in after it.
However, although she can swim, she began to struggle after trying to save her baby and being weighed down by her clothing.
Little Reya Wang, four, thanked Ethan Melvin, one of the Widnes lads who came to the rescue of mum Lifei Wang and her sister Eva when they fell into the Sankey Canal.
Joe Draycott, Campbell Law, Ethan Melvin, Jacob Potter, Ellis Hulme and McAuley Maguire, were playing football nearby and came to the stricken mum and daughter’s aid.
Joe told the Weekly News how the boys heard the cries of Reya, and sprinted over to help, while calling 999.
Ethan Melvin, 14, heaved the baby from the water – overcoming the force of the soaked layers of winter clothing weighing her down.
He then spotted tiny Eva was ‘sputtering’ and realised he needed to perform CPR – something he had learned in school before paramedics took over when they arrived.
At Widnes Police Station on Monday watched by proud parents and police, the schoolboys were presented with a bravery award from Chief Inspector Catherine Pritchard.
At the award ceremony four-year-old Reya Wang even presented the boys with presents from the grateful family.
Little Reya also received an award and the gratitude of the police for alerting the boys and showing them where they were needed.
Chief inspector Pritchard, of Cheshire police , said: “I know the parents are very proud.
“Their night wouldn’t be nothing if it wasn’t for the boys’ quick thinking.
“You were just fabulous on the night.
“And to even think about giving CPR is amazing.
“So thank you for making Widnes a safer place and I feel very proud to be working here knowing there are people like you.”
When Reya appeared calling in ‘distress’, Joe said the boys all did their bit.
He said: “We were all just playing football, the girl ran up crying and everything just clicked into place.
“It was like we knew exactly what to do.
He added: “We all arranged everyone’s role, it was that easy, it seemed we knew it.”
“She [the mum] couldn’t lift her out. So together they have got the baby out and then got the mum out.
“It shook them up but it’s better than if no-one else was there.”
Their ‘courageous’ actions have also been praised by their school, Saints Peter And Paul Catholic College.