Littlest hero- Emerald Leading Senior Constable Steve Butler presents Thomas Lambe, 5, with certificates recognising his calm under pressure. 56633

By Casey Neill
COCKATOO youngster Thomas Lambe kept his cool when it counted to save his Nanna, earning him praise from the police and local council.
Joan Lambe, 69, was looking after the five-year-old and his little sister last month when she tripped, fell, broke her hip and blacked out.
She’d been outside with the pair rounding up chickens, Thomas’s dad Craig Lambe told the Mail.
“Young Tom originally went and got her mobile phone for her but she didn’t have any reception,” he said.
“At that point he took it upon himself to climb over the fence and go and alert the neighbours.”
He pounded on their back door when he found no answer at the front.
“He told them his nanna was down and couldn’t get up,” Mr Lambe said.
“The next thing she knew the neighbour was over the top of her and the ambulance was there.”
“He did well, he didn’t just drop the bottom lip.”
Thomas didn’t even let slamming his finger in a door break his determination to help his grandmother.
Emerald Leading Senior Constable Steve Butler yesterday (Monday) presented Thomas with a police merit award and a Cardinia Shire Council certificate for Positive Behaviour and Good Citizenship in the municipality in front of his Avonsleigh Pre-school classmates. “When I first heard the story I was amazed that someone so young could do such an amazing thing,” he said.
Thomas’s eyes lit up when Lead Sen Const Butler handed him a $20 gift card.
“It’s really, really good story and it just goes to show it doesn’t matter how tall or small you are, you can still help someone,” he told the preschoolers.
Thomas said he was a bit scared but was “just being brave”. He thought the certificates were “cool”.
“I’m going to hang them up in my room,” he said.
Thomas planned to show them to his Nanna later in the day. She’d returned home after surgery to replace her badly broken hip but was still in too much pain to attend the presentation.
Mr Lambe said the bone had broken on an angle where the ball and socket met. She’d also suffered mild concussion, superficial bruises and injured her shoulder.
“And hurt her pride a little bit I suppose,” he said.
This wasn’t Thomas’s first brave effort. Last year he was on hand to help his dad when his sister slipped down an embankment into a dam.
“He followed instructions really well,” Mr Lambe said.
“I told him to go into the house, get the blankets, get this, get that.”
“Even some adults don’t react well in situations like that.”