Life-saver award call

By MARA PATTISON-SOWDEN AND RUSSELL BENNETT
THE YOUNGER brother of a Yarra Junction man who jumped into freezing cold water to save a drowning mother and child says the hero deserves a bravery award for his courage.
But leaping into the Phillip Island water last Wednesday was just a natural reaction for 21-year-old Aleksei Bondarenko-Edwards.
Local police have echoed the call from Sascha Bondarenko-Edwards, 18, who said: “It’s important to encourage people to look out for others.
“A bravery award would be well-deserved.”
But back at work on Sunday, Aleksei said the rescue was something he was trained to do.
“We were sitting around afterwards and it felt a bit crazy, you know, we just happened to save two lives,” said Aleksei, a part-time lifeguard at the Yarra Centre in Yarra Junction.
He had traveled to Cowes for a uni holiday break with work colleague Jennifer Huynh and two friends, Christelle Franc and Thuy Pham, who were visiting from France.
The group planned to head to Aleksei’s family holiday house in Rhyll after lunch on Wednesday, when they decided to go for a stroll down to the jetty while waiting for their food to be cooked.
“There was an Italian family in the carpark, and the woman was yelling ‘police’,” he said.
Five-year-old Ben had fallen off the jetty at about 1.30pm last Wednesday 18 July and his step-mother Kim, 44, jumped in after him, but also got into difficulty in the icy-cold water.
“Straight away I got my kit off and jumped in…by that time she was in under her head,” Aleksei said.
“Another girl, Christelle, she also came in after me and grabbed the boy.”
The two dragged mother and son to shore. Ben was conscious and the girls wrapped him in towels, but Kim was unconscious in Aleksei’s arms.
“She was cold and water-logged, and drifting in and out of consciousness,” he said.
When they got to shore emergency services hadn’t been called despite several onlookers watching the scene unfold, and Aleksei had to ask someone again to call an ambulance while he began to help Kim.
The group stayed at the scene for another 20 minutes, assisting paramedics and speaking with the young boy, before they ventured off to pick up their lukewarm lunch.
Speaking with the Mail on Sunday at the Yarra Centre, where he’s been a part-time duty manager and lifeguard for four years, Aleksei said he was very confident around water and grew up swimming and surfing on family holidays at Phillip Island.
“I have used first aid skills here and experienced the adrenalin of being able to react and take action,” he said.
“But this was using pure logic.
“The recognition is really nice, but to be honest, people do this kind of thing every day.”