A young Australian Boy who just failed a state-run swimming program was lauded as a hero for performing a heroic swim to save his family as they were stranded at sea.
On January 30, 13-year-old Austin Appelbee undertook an incredible four-hour voyage in choppy waves to raise the alarm that his family was marooned off the South West coast of Western Australia, clinging to paddleboards, 7 News Australia Reports.
He ran two kilometers to a phone to call Triple-0 after arriving at the shore, initiating a large search.
More than eight hours after being driven offshore by powerful winds, his mother Joanne and younger siblings Beau, 12, and Grace, 8, were found by a rescue helicopter 14 kilometers out to sea, exhausted but alive because to his bravery.
