A MUM has praised the teenager who helped her son after he suffered a "stonking" broken wrist in a skateboarding accident.
Terence Timms, 13, suffered the horrific break while on a ramp at Wandle Park, Croydon, on Saturday.
A surgeon later told Sarah Timms her son's the fracture was one of the worst breaks he had ever seen.
The Archbishop Tenison's pupil was helped by 15-year-old BMX rider Fred Hawkins, who called an ambulance, calmed him down and rang his mum.
Mrs Timms told the Advertiser: "I can't thank Fred enough. My husband and I agree there's too much crappy press out there about teenagers. There's an awful lot of good going on out there and Fred is a perfect example."
Terence is recovering at home in Laurier Road, Addiscombe, after undergoing surgery on his wrist.
He said: "I was messing about at the skatepark with my friend and he let me go on his skateboard.
"I've only ever been on one twice but when I first went down the ramp I was absolutely fine.
"As I was having another go I slipped backward and my hand went first. I saw how bad the bone was and I turned away.
"Everyone around me was telling me not to look at it and to breathe slowly."
Fred, a pupil at Riddlesdown Collegiate, ran to his aid immediately.
"He quickly got off his bike, ran over and sat down next to me," said Terence.
"He sat with me and called the ambulance then took my phone and called my mum. It helped a lot."
Mrs Timms said: "When I got the call I initially thought he was joking.
"Then I heard him talking to Terence in the background, checking if he was okay, and telling everyone to keep back. He made sure he was breathing calmly and didn't go into shock. He kept him calm which I think is mega important."
Mrs Timms met her son at the hospital when the extent of his injury became clear.
She explained: "Even the ambulance men were saying 'My god, you'll want to see this wrist'. It's a stonker of a broken arm. It is awful, very, very deformed.
"Both the ulna and the radius were pointing in the wrong direction. The surgeon who worked on it said it was in the top three worst breaks he has ever seen.
After her son was out of surgery, Mrs Timms set about trying to find Fred to thank him. She posted an appeal on the Advertiser's Facebook page and, within hours, she had tracked him down. On Wednesday she told Melanie Hawkins, the teenager's mum, how grateful she was.
Mrs Hawkins told the Advertiser that Fred has form when it comes to remaining cool in an emergency, having come to his father's aid when he was electrocuted by a faulty boiler several years ago.
"I knew he had it in him," she said. "He's that sort of boy. He's kind and caring and he's the first one to help someone else."
Fred said he was "just doing the right thing".
"I put my bike on the ramp to stop people coming down and then got my jacket and put it over him to stop him going into shock. I tried to keep him calm until the ambulance came."
