Awards for 12-year-olds who saved disabled pensioners

Two 12-year-olds who rescued disabled pensioners from a burning building and a woman who steered a runaway bus out of the path of an oncoming car are among two dozen individuals recognised for their outstanding bravery.

Carys Calder and cousin Lynsay Cumming, who were both 12 at the time, carried their great-great aunt and grandmother from a blazing house in Ayr after an electric blanket caught fire.

They were last night presented with the Scottish Government’s Brave@Heart award, alongside Agnes Crystal who grabbed the wheel of a runaway bus in Dundee after the driver left the handbrake off.

Ms Crystal, who has never held a driving licence, steered the bus away from an oncoming vehicle and into a barrier.

Other recipients were Angus Blackburn who pulled a child from a burning building, and acting charge nurse Margaret Dunlop who evacuated the high-dependence unit of a hospital when a refrigerator leaked gas.

Several people were recognised for facing down attackers, including shopworker Euan George Brown who disarmed a knifeman who tried to rob his shop in Orkney, and newsagent Stacey Lynch who helped police hunt down a man who threatened her with a syringe.

Four police constables were recognised, including one stabbed in the arm by a man threatening to kill himself, and a probationer who restrained a drunk mentally ill man who had been driving erratically.

Set up by First Minister Alex Salmond in 2010, the annual awards invite the emergency services to nominate unsung heroes. Other winners were a couple who waded into the River Tweed to save a man from drowning, three men who pulled a man from the sea and several people who rescued individuals from crashed vehicles.