AMHERST, N.S. — Best day ever.
That’s how eight-year-old Amherst resident Sophia LeBlanc described her day on Dec. 4 when she and Elijah Woods of Port Hood were presented with 2019 Medal of Bravery Awards.
LeBlanc is the youngest Nova Scotian to be recognized with the award that’s presented annually to Nova Scotians who have risked their lives protecting the life or property of others.
On Nov. 1, 2018, Sophia was a passenger in her mother’s vehicle when it lost control and landed upside down, submerged in a river near Oxford. Sophia freed her youngest sibling from the car and then ran up the hill to flag down help for the rest of her family.
Her mother, Candice Hicks, was impressed with the maturity her daughter showed that day as well during the ceremony when she was presented the award by Premier Stephen McNeil and Lt. Gov. Arthur J. LeBlanc.
“It was an exciting day,” Hicks said. “I’m so proud her. I don’t think she understands the significance of what happened. It was funny during the ceremony she was sitting on her chair looking all around and taking it all in. She looked a little bored.”
Sophia accepted a pin and framed certificate during the ceremony. Hicks said she intends to have the pin engraved to mark the occasion.
Hicks remembers the accident like it happened yesterday. She said the tire of her vehicle went off the side of the road on Highway 204 in Little River and when she attempted to correct her steering the vehicle caught on hump and then shot across to the other side of the road and into the ditch.
Hicks and Sophia were able to free themselves, but her other two children, Elise and Ethan, were suspended upside down in their child safety seats. Hicks had broken bones in her forearm and shattered her wrist, but with help from Sophia they were able to free Elise. Ethan had lost consciousness on the side of the van that was hard to reach.
She could see vehicles passing on the road, but no one could see them. Sophia went up to the road, climbing up her mother’s back onto the bank and then up to the road where she waved down a car.
“We hit the railing and then I remember thinking there was no going back. We ended up on the edge of the river, but I thought we were going to go right into the river and that we’d be trapped or submerged under the water,” Hicks said. “She was calmer than I was. I know she was scared, but she was like ‘OK, what do we do?’ She climbed up my back and got to the road to get help.”
Doug Patriquin, a retired firefighter with the Oxford Fire Department, stopped his vehicle, wrapped Sophia in a blanket and climbed down the embankment, where Tony Terry, who lived next door to the crash site, was working to free Ethan.
Terry had been working in his garage when he heard screeching tires and saw the van go off the edge of the road and into the river. He called 911 and rushed to help.
In January, Sophia was presented an Act of Heroism Award from the RCMP. Const. Angela Downey, who was with the Cumberland RCMP at the time, nominated her from the provincial Medal of Bravery.
“We were invited by the RCMP to accept an award and we didn’t think much of it at the time, but they made it into a big ceremony,” Hicks said. “Angela then nominated her for the medal. We had no idea she was receive this honour.”
Hicks said her daughter found it rough after the crash and was scared whenever the vehicle she was in hit a bump or went over railway tracks. She also was afraid to be in a fast-moving vehicle. She did recover, though, and has done fine over the last several months.
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