20 YEARS OF PRIDE OF BRITAIN
THE savage dog’s jaws clamped around Brwa Hassan, mauling the terrified four-year-old boy as mum Amira screamed helplessly.
Then Juby Mathew drove into the narrow street. The sight was doubly terrifying for him, as he had been attacked by a dog when he was nine.
“I didn’t have time to think about that though,” he said. “I was thinking about my own children and how I would want someone to help them.”
Juby, of Huddersfield, stopped and ran over. As he tried to kick the animal away, it clamped its jaws around Juby’s leg, leaving a huge, gaping wound.
Juby wrestled with it for 10 minutes, all the time with Brwa in his arms.
Suddenly, Juby fell, fracturing his hand so badly the bone at the base of his wrist was sticking through his skin. Finally, someone whisked Brwa to safety while Juby continued to keep the dog distracted before escaping to his car.
The pit-bull type dog was eventually captured and destroyed but Juby needed five months off work, having painful surgery and physio. Brwa was treated for his injuries and left with scarring. But if not for Juby’s heroics, things could have been worse.
“My son would not be here now if it wasn’t for him,” said Amira.
Juby – now a father to three boys, aged 14, 13 and five – got the Special Recognition award at the 2008 Pride of Britain Awards. “I didn’t do this to get any award,” says Juby, 42.
“I’m just glad he was OK. I see Brwa in Tesco sometimes and he’s taller than me now! I’ll never know where the courage came from that day, I’m just glad it did.”