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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Amanda Coll, as told to Katie Cunningham

The kindness of strangers: My son was unconscious and I frantically called out for help – then five teenagers came running

A black and white photo with colorful hand-drawn additions shows four people in a park with a large yellow circle
‘Perhaps because of their age I expected less of those teenagers, but they stepped in without hesitation.’ Composite: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design/Alamy

I was at the park with my two young boys, aged five and seven, riding scooters along a wide path that looped around the grass. My eldest has cerebral palsy, so my husband had modified a scooter with a large base so that we could ride it together. My son stood at the front and I stood behind him. It meant he could join in just like other kids, and he loved it.

When you have boys, you need to run them like dogs – the goal is to burn as much energy as possible every time you’re out of the house. So even though it had started to drizzle, we set off on another loop of the park on our scooters. But when we hit a puddle coming round the bend, the scooter slipped out from under me. We fell sideways, landing on the ground. I realised my son wasn’t conscious. In that moment all I felt was sheer terror.

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