The Australian divers, who helped rescue the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, have both been awarded the honour of 2019 Australian of the Year.
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This is the first time the award has been given to two people.
Anaesthetist Dr Richard Harris and his long-time diving buddy and retired veterinary surgeon Dr Craig Challen were part of a small AUSMAT team sent to the rescue efforts in Chang Rai in Northern Thailand, in July 2018.
Harris braved the flooded caves, swimming back and forth through the narrow passages, to assess the health of the boys before they were to be guided back to the surface. Once every boy had been medically cleared, Challen had the incredibly difficult task of swimming the boys, one-by-one, through the cave.
The 2019 Australians of the Year are Craig Challen and Dr Richard Harris their incredible act of selflessness in using their expertise in the rescue of a soccer team and their coach from flooded Thai caves inspired Australia and the World and filled every Australian with pride pic.twitter.com/SRCJO38quQ
— AusoftheYearAwards (@ausoftheyear) January 25, 2019
“Richard Harris and Craig Challen led a heroic rescue under the spotlight of the world’s media. They placed the safety of others above their own and inspired hope when hope seemed lost,” Chair of the National Australia Day council Danielle Roche OAM said as reported by SBS.
“Their selflessness, courage and willingness to help others in a time of need typifies the Australian spirit,” she said.
In July of last year, following the successful rescue of all 12 boys and their coach, Harris and Challen shared their thanks in a post on Facebook.
I wanted to write this to try and give credit to all the people who were in some way involved. Craig and I have had a spotlight on our efforts and we want to make everyone realise that while we might have become the face of this rescue for some reason, everyone should know that the role we played was no more or less important than all the many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people I have mentioned. The part we played has been made out to be a lot more noble than it actually was, we just consider ourselves lucky to have had some skills that we could contribute to the wonderful outcome.
