Shropshire Star comment: Heroes are a credit to the nation
It has been a great week for heroes. England’s unfancied footballers have dominated the headlines after making a brave run to the semi finals of the World Cup.
But while the likes of Kane, Pickford and Maguire improved lives, allowing us all to live the dream for a little while, two men who live closer to home have done far more.
John Volanthen and Rick Stanton haven’t simply improved lives, they were part of a team that saved them. The members of the South and Mid Wales Rescue Team were part of the improbable rescue operation that saved 12 Thai boys and their football coach from a perilous, flooded cave.
The world watched on as the duo found themselves in a life-or-death scenario. Both helped to achieve the seemingly impossible and it is quite right that they should be in line for honours.
North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has led the calls for their contribution to be formally recognised as part of the honours process. It is a call that we wholeheartedly endorse.
Scant details are available regarding the intricacies of their mission. We do know, however, that the boys were stuck underground for a fortnight and that their rescue was so dangerous that one trained expert lost his life while helping to secure their release.
The honours system all too regularly rewards celebrities who were once rebels and become a part of the establishment, as well as civil servants and politicians who may well have served the country well but are also part of a clique.
Too frequently it does not reward people who genuinely make a difference, who put their lives on the line for the benefit of others. In the case of Volanthen and Stanton, that is absolutely the case. They dropped their normal day-to-day lives to save others. And then they put themselves into the most extreme danger in order to bring to the surface a group of boys who hadd found themselves in the gravest situation.
The world watched on as they and others like them went deep into the belly of a cave in to extract children who might otherwise have perished.
The rescue was one of the most extraordinary stories of 2018 and they deserve nothing less than the highest honours.
They are a credit to the nation.
