Grateful mum wants to see friend's brave act honoured
Lisa Hayward wants a family friend who plucked her 9-year-old son Zac from a deadly rip to be recognised for his bravery.
"If he hadn't been there we would've been having a funeral ... he's a real hero," an emotional Hayward told the Herald on Sunday.
The friend is BrettTolley, a recreational diver who was boogie-boarding with Zac and three other children at Ruakaka Beach, 30km south of Whangarei, on January 4.
Zac got into trouble when he went to the aid of his 6-year-old brother Joaquin after the water flow suddenly changed, Hayward, of One Tree Point, said.
As Hayward pulled Joaquin from the water, Zac was dragged out to sea: "It was horrible ... I was just shouting to God to bring him back."
Tolley went to Zac's aid, and an exhausted Zac tried to climb on to his rescuer before Tolley put him in the diver's tow.
"He said to me later: 'I'm sorry, I had to manhandle your son'," Hayward said. "I was like: 'Seriously, you could have knocked him out and I wouldn't have cared'."
Tolley said he was not a hero, just someone who had a job to do. "This little boy is valuable."
