‘Happy’ day for young stab victim as she meets her saviours and William

The seven-year-old, who was only being named publicly as Noura, also met the Duke of Cambridge at an event at a London fire station to mark Emergency Services Day.

Noura met Metropolitan Police officers Pc Ryan Legge and Pc Ahmet Mavitunali, who gave her life-saving emergency treatment when her father attacked her at his home in Brent, north-west London, in May 2020.

The officers were alerted about concerns over the welfare of a man and his young daughter after being told that his family in Austria had received a photograph electronically of the two showing significant injuries.

They did not have an exact address at the block of flats where the attack took place and had to force their way into several properties before finding Noura, then aged six, who was unconscious and had suffered significant stab wounds to her neck and chest.

Doctors initially feared that Noura would suffer serious neurological brain damage, but she has since made a full recovery and is doing really well.

Noura’s mother Luna Di Raimondo said: “The emergency services saved her. They were extremely quick and made sure she got to the hospital. If they did not do what they did, probably she would not be here.

“Meeting William today has been a happy ending. It has been a remarkable experience.”

Noura’s father, who was found with self-inflicted stab wounds, was charged with attempted murder and jailed for 22 years, the Metropolitan Police said.

William, who served as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years until 2017, met frontline workers from the South East Coast Ambulance Service, the RNLI, the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade (LFB) along with people who received their life-saving help.

He heard their first-hand stories of rescue and bravery during a visit to the Dockhead Fire Station in south-east London.

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe, who said the frontline workers represented “the best of Britain’s emergency services,” added: “I think it is a really great reminder of all those selfless public servants out there, the ordinary people who are prepared to do extraordinary things on a daily basis.

“When you listen to His Royal Highness talking to the people here, he is coming from his own experience.

“He has flown a helicopter. He has rescued people. He understands what they might be going through. My experience of him is that he is really interested in their stories on a human level. It has been a privilege to hear their stories.”

William heard how a 10-year-old schoolboy survived being dragged out to sea after remembering RNLI water safety advice.

Ravi Saini, of Leeds, was rescued by the crew of Scarborough RNLI inshore lifeboat in July 2020 after being dragged out to sea while paddling during a summer holiday with his father Nathu Ram, mother Puspa and younger sister Muskan.

Ravi remembered the RNLI’s “Float to Live” advice – to lie on your back like a starfish and relax – from a television series about the charity and was able to remain afloat for almost an hour before the lifeboat crew found and rescued him, returning him safely to his waiting family.

After meeting William and catching up with his rescuers on Thursday, Ravi, now aged 11, said: “They (the emergency services) do so much in saving lives and get so little back that it is good they have a day when people think about them.”

South East Coast ambulance technician Charlotte Speers, along with off-duty firefighters Marc Rustage and James Knight, resuscitated five year-old Lila Page who collapsed in March 2020.

Ms Speers, who was on maternity leave, was at The Railway pub in Rainham, Kent, when she heard a commotion and the pub manager shouting for someone to call an ambulance.

She and her off-duty emergency colleagues went to help.

It was later discovered that Lila, of Rainham, had a heart condition.

She has since had surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is doing very well.

Lila was dressed like a princess with a toy tiara for her meeting with William on Thursday and he said he liked her sparkly silver shoes and unicorn watch.

Asked about her meeting with William and the people who saved her, she said “it was nice meeting new people and they are cool, really cool”.

William also heard about a fire at a 19-storey block of flats in Tower Hamlets, east London, in May, in which two men were taken to hospital with injuries and smoke inhalation while 42 other people, including children, were treated at the scene.

The block was evacuated and 35 people were rescued. Amid the heavy smoke, firefighter Nikolay Penchev carried a woman down 18 floors and led her husband safely out of the building.

Mr Penchev, 26, who has two years’ service as a firefighter in London along with four years in the Bulgarian Fire Brigade, said: “It had been a necessity. There was no other option and I had to reassure her that I was capable and confident of doing it.”

William is to meet frontline workers at Kensington Palace later on Thursday afternoon to talk about suicide prevention within the emergency services community.

World Suicide Prevention Day is on September 10.