Child of Courage nominee – Ronnie Sharp

Child of Courage nominee – Ronnie Sharp

Meet Ronnie Sharp. He’s just seven years old and he’s saved his mum’s life.

Ronnie was home alone with his type one diabetic mum when she became hypoglycaemic and fell unconscious.

He sent a message to his grandma via his iPad, followed her instructions and later let an ambulance crew into his Uttoxeter home.

Ronnie’s grandma, who lives a four-and-a-half-hour train journey away, is convinced that he saved his mum’s life and has nominated him as a Child of Courage in the Your Heroes Awards.

She said: “Ronnie contacted me via a message on his iPad saying I can’t wake up mummy, she’s been asleep for four hours and I’m really hungry. My daughter is a single mum and it’s just the two of them at home.

“I asked him to go and knock on the neighbour’s door but there was nobody there. He kept telling me that he was really hungry and couldn’t wake mummy.

“I told him I’d take him for the biggest McDonald’s if he could try to wake his mum. I asked him if he could see her tummy moving up and down and he said he couldn’t.

“The battery was flat on my daughter’s phone so I wasn’t able to call Ronnie on that and I also knew she must have been asleep for some time.”

While trying to reassure Ronnie via messages and encourage him to knock on the door of other neighbours his grandma, Joanne Mason, was on the phone at her home in Berkshire asking for an ambulance and the police to be sent to Ronnie and Bethanie in Staffordshire.

“Ronnie was calm and collected but he also told me that he was really, really scared. Ronnie is a big fan of the Marvel superhero Black Panther so I told him that he’s braver than Black Panther.”

He followed instructions to find his mum’s sugar tester, to let paramedics into the house and to show them a message with his grandma’s phone number so that she could talk to them directly and pass on Bethanie’s medical history.

Joanne said: “There are no words to describe how proud I am of Ronnie. He’s superb. His mum was a heartbeat away from being in a coma. I’m just bursting with pride – he saved his mum’s life.”

Ronnie is to be given a mobile phone of his own so that if his mum becomes ill again it’ll be easier for him to ask for help.