A year after Saatchi Trott, aged 11, won an award for bravery, he returned the plaque to Harrington Sound Primary School for the next awardee. Sékou Hendrickson spoke to Saatchi about the time he saved his friend’s life.

It was a normal afternoon when Saatchi Trott and his friend decided to get an ice cream after they took the bus home from school.

But when his friend could not stop coughing after he had taken only two bites of his ice cream, Saatchi knew something was seriously wrong.

Saatchi said: “He started coughing, so I asked if he was all right and he said ‘yeah’. But then he started coughing a lot.

“We were walking down the hill next to the cricket field and he sat down – he said he needed to take a breather.”

Saatchi remembered that his fellow pupil was allergic to nuts – and the two realised that he was going into anaphylactic shock.

Saatchi said that, even though he had never been in a similar situation, he knew he had a clear objective – “keep calm, don’t panic and don’t run”.

Saatchi, then a ten-year-old pupil at Harrington Sound Primary School, said that he had known his friend for some time and the two used to catch the bus and compete in team sports together.

Saatchi said his friend tried to call his mother as he struggled to breathe – but when he had difficulty speaking, he took over.

He added: “I took the phone from him because he couldn’t talk, and then I told her what was going on and that he was having an allergic reaction.

“I told her where we were and his aunt came to pick him up.”

He added: “In my mind I thought that he’s going to have to go to the hospital so somebody needs to come right now.

“I thought I could run to go to my mama because she could rush him to the hospital, but if we came back he probably would have been dead.”

Saatchi said that he friend had an EpiPen, which is used to minimise allergic reactions, but was unsure of how to use it.

The pair waited for the boy’s aunt who rushed him to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for a life-saving dose of epinephrine.

Saatchi added that he saw the other boy at school a few days later.

Saatchi said: “It was just regular things – we were catching the bus, walking home, talking – but we got closer.”

Harrington Sound Primary School found out about the incident and created the Saatchi Trott Award for Bravery, which will be awarded every year to a pupil that showed conspicuous courage under stress.

He said that the award would “live on” in his honour for a very long time.

Saatchi, now at the Whitney Institute in Smith’s, said that in an emergency it was crucial to “keep calm, do not panic and stay with the person’.”

Saatchi’s mother, Candace, said she was “extremely proud” of her son and the maturity that he had shown.

She added: “He was able to remain calm and competent through a crisis situation and it just shows that he’s a little wise beyond his years.

“He’s very mature and I’m just proud – extremely proud – to know that he’s had such a big impact on someone’s life and to actually have saved a life, unbeknown to him at the time.”