By Ismay Woods
TWO 11 year-olds have been credited for helping to save the life of a Newtownards grandfather after he sustained a serious head injury.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 14, 69 year-old Alan Willis, from Newtownards, and his granddaughter Poppy McClean, were enjoying a spot of fishing off Donaghadee pier when when Alan slipped and fell.
Poppy’s reaction was ‘remarkable’, Alan recalled. The youngster told her grandfather to sit down while she tended to the head injury by compressing the wound, and called her
parents to let them know what had happened.
Alan recalled: “A young lad was fishing with his grandparents about six or seven feet away. He came over and asked if I wanted him to look after my [fishing] gear, and sat with my granddaughter until her parents arrived.”
The young boy was Carter Clark, and Alan is full of praise and admiration for the boy and Poppy. Alan said Carter was ‘switched on’, and showed great compassion to a ‘total stranger’.
Alan’s daughter Jennifer and son-in- law arrived to take him to the Ulster Hospital; it was only as they were making their way to the car, did an adult approach to offer help.
Alan said: “Not one adult in the vicinity came near after I fell.”
It was while at hospital the seriousness of Alan’s injury was fully realised – he had a bleed to the brain, and remained in the Ulster for two days under observation.
Such is his condition, Alan has yet to return to work, and is not allowed to drive for another six months.
Alan’s wife Lin said her husband ‘is lucky to be alive’, crediting Poppy and Carter as having ‘saved his life’.
Alan added: “The lovely thing is they [Poppy and Carter] haven’t been put off fishing, and Poppy is now interested in taking up first aid.”
While he was in hospital, Alan’s daughter Jennifer used social media in an attempt to trace the compassionate boy who had helped her dad. Her results were successful, and she discovered Carter and his family were on holiday in Spain – and that Carter was keen to meet up with Alan to check up on his progress.
The meeting took place back at the harbour on Friday afternoon.
