McHeroes! Corby boys rewarded for rushing to aid of man knocked over by Storm Doris

Four Corby boys were mid-McDonald’s when Storm Doris took hold of a man on Thursday (February 23) and knocked him to the ground.

But rather than watch on they dropped their burgers and ran to his aid, staying with him until an ambulance arrived.

Five days later Harry Glass, Adam O’Neill, Liam Meney and Ryan McAuley – all 16 years old – have been rewarded by Tresham College.

Harry said: “We were just on our lunch break before English in McDonald’s on the top floor.

“Adam saw someone fall because it was so windy, and we just ran.

“Ryan rang the ambulance and Liam stayed with him and we put a thermal blanket over him.

“When the ambulance came we had to hold the trolley because the wind was moving it so much.

“He had fallen really badly and had some lacerations from where he fell on to his keys.”

The man, who the boys thought to be between 60 and 70, has since made a full recovery after having stitches.

When they returned to finish their meal, onlooker Thirza Smith O’Boyle asked the boys for a picture and posted it on Facebook, branding them ‘heroes’.

The picture received 191,000 likes, 72,000 shares and almost 23,000 comments of support for the youngsters.

Adam says he can’t quite believe how viral it’s gone.

He said: “When the woman asked us if she could put the picture on Facebook we thought it would only get about 20 likes!

“We couldn’t believe it when we saw how many people liked it.

“We’re not heroes.

“Nothing much has changed but I keep getting phone calls and people adding me on Facebook.”

Liam works at a pub as well as studying and says people have even recognised him from the picture at work.

He said: “It’s just been crazy since the picture went up.

“I work at the Chequered Flag and people keep staring at me and talking about the picture.

“At the end of the day it’s not even a good deed that we did.

“If you see someone fall over you’re not going to just sit there and watch.”

Ryan added that his family said they were proud of his actions.

All four boys study BTEC sport at the college’s Corby campus.

Today (Tuesday) they were rewarded for their actions by being presented with gift vouchers and cinema vouchers by their tutor Craig Harrower.

Deputy principal Corrie Harris said: “I’m very proud of how our students acted so selflessly to help someone that was in need last week.

“At Tresham we see many examples of how young people are helping others in their community and it is great that our students are getting the credit that they deserve for helping this gentleman before he was taken to hospital.

“We wish him a speedy recovery.”