A BRAVE man from Dawlish who rescued a girl from drowning in October is to be honoured for his courageous actions.
Tom Ahearn, 24, has been awarded the Testimonial on Parchment from the Royal Humane Society for the rescue of Arwen Bird, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who is the daughter of a Dawlish vicar.
The incident occurred at about 7pm on October 12, 2003, near Red Rock, Dawlish Warren.
Arwen had been walking her black Labrador, Jess, along the seawall and had almost come to the end of her journey when disaster struck.
'The weather had started to take a turn for the worse and I decided to go home,' she said, 'I got down onto the beach as I could see that there was a bit of it I could walk on instead of going on the sea wall.
'About half way along, a huge wave caught my dog and I, and started to pull us out to sea. I managed to get back to the shore but could see that Jess hadn't. I could see her swimming, trying to get back in so I went to the bottom of some steps to try and grab her collar.
When I grabbed her it fell off and she was dragged out again leaving me holding it. The next thing another huge wave came over me and swept me off my feet and started to drag me out.'
Arwen was dragged back into the furious seas and then bashed against the sea wall causing cuts and bruises. She was getting physically exhausted from trying to grab on to something. 'I was starting to feel really week and didn't think I was going to make it,' she said.
Luckily, Mr Ahearn was walking by on the sea wall and noticed the commotion in the water and despite being a non-swimmer, decided he had to take swift action or the life of the girl would be lost.
Braving the bitterly cold seas, torrential rain, crashing waves and in the fading light of dusk, Mr Ahearn knew there was only one thing he could do to save her life – face his fear.
'I looked into the water and saw that she was lying face down in the water which made me start to panic a bit. I was running on adrenaline and just knew I had to get her out of the water as quickly as possible.'
Carrying her on his shoulders up the beach, Mr Ahearn used his mobile phone to contact the coastguard. Both were airlifted out, and Jess, Arwen's dog, managed to get out on her own and was unharmed.
The Testimonial on Parchment that Mr Ahearn is now set to receive is awarded to people who have put themselves in danger to save the life of someone else. The certificate is hand-inscribed by a professional calligrapher, giving the outline of the brave deed leading to the award.
No date has been set for the presentation of the award but it is expected to take place soon.