Army cadet honoured for saving life
April 21, 2008
Cadet Cpl Caleb Gillett accepts the Royal Life Saving Society Silver and Gold Medals for Bravery during a March 29 ceremony in Vancouver.
Fourteen-year-old Cadet Cpl Caleb Gillett was awarded the Royal Life Saving Society Silver and Gold Medals for Bravery. The awards recognize his actions in aiding a 13-year-old friend who was trapped at the bottom of a swimming pool last June.
Cadet Cpl Gillett, of 2316 New Westminster “The Royal Westminster Regiment” Royal Canadian Army Cadets, was swimming in his apartment complex pool with several friends when they noticed one of their companions was missing. The non-swimmer was located unconscious at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. His swimsuit was caught in the pool filter system and he was unable to surface. Diving down to the boy twice, Cadet Cpl Gillet ripped the victim out of his bathing suit and pulled him to the surface. Even though the boy had been submerged for about four minutes, he responded to CPR applied by an adult swimmer poolside and taken to hospital by ambulance for observation, and survived.
Cadet Cpl Gillett was among several B.C. residents who received life saving awards from the Royal Life Saving Society in the presence of Steven Point, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia at a March 29 ceremony at the Fairmount Vancouver Hotel.
Cadet Cpl Gillett was also awarded the Gold Medal for Bravery, which is recommended by the Governor of the Life Saving Society of B.C. in recognition of the most heroic rescue of the year.
Founded in England in 1891, The Lifesaving Society (formerly the Royal Lifesaving Society) is a not-for-profit organization whose mandate is to reduce water-related death and injury. The Society has been educating the public and training lifesavers and lifeguards in B.C. since 1911.
