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POET
Lance Spice with “Crikey Mikey” Shepheard and his father
Bill on HMAS Canberra.
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By
SBLT Eric Radford
An
accident resulting in a gruesome injury was averted in Darwin
recently by a keen-eyed Petty Officer.
HMAS Canberra’s POET Lance Spice came to the rescue of a young
Darwin local in distress.
PO Spice was busy shopping in Darwin’s Casuarina Square Shopping
Centre during Canberra’s (CMDR Raymond Leggatt) involvement in
Ex Singaroo, when he witnessed three-year-old Michael Shepheard
catch his arm in a travelator.
The three-year-old, who has already been rushed to Darwin Hospital’s
emergency ward four times this year, is known as “Crikey Mikey”
by friends and family due to his accident-prone nature.
He looked to be in serious trouble until PO Spice came to the
rescue.
The Canberra sailor was modest about his involvement in the incident:
“I didn’t do much.
All I did was go over, stop it and rip the panels off to get his
arm out.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Crikey Mikey though, as he, his twin
brothers Paddy and George, (11) and their father Bill, were taken
on a guided tour of Canberra two weeks after the incident.
It was the youngster’s first time on a ship and he was obviously
grateful, telling PO Spice, “Thankyou.
I’m going on a big boat”.