Gold award

Oldham’s Caoimhe Preshur, crowned one of the UK’s unsung swimming stars.

A BRAVE 10-year-old has been presented with a gold award for the quick-thinking actions that helped her save the life of a boy after he fell overboard into icy water earlier this year.

Caoimhe Preshur, from Saddleworth, was on a family boating holiday in Sheffield when she saw the boy slip off the deck of a narrow boat and into the canal in March.

After shouting for help Caoimhe, then aged nine, jumped into the water and helped to keep the 10-year-old’s head above the surface until family members rushed to help them.

Now she is celebrating after being awarded gold by the Royal Life Saving Society at the star-studded 2013 Kellogg’s ASA Swimtastic Awards ceremony.

She travelled to Birmingham at the weekend to swim with stars of British swimming, including Paralympic gold medalist and BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, Josef Craig, and collect her award.

Caoimhe, a pupil at Greenfield Primary School, said: “I’m really proud and I had a great weekend at the Swimtastic awards. It was inspiring to meet the Olympic and Paralympic swimmers.”

Caoimhe, who is thinking of becoming a lifeguard when she is older, has also completed her first Rookie Lifeguard Award course and is the holder of the Royal Life Saving Society’s Young Person’s Certificate of Commendation for her rescue.
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