Man dies before collecting award

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 22

Man dies before collecting award

PA Auckland When a motor-cyclist, lan Stowers, heard he was to receive an award for bravery, he refused to believe it. “Those things don’t happen to me,” his family recalled him saying. Tragically, in a sense, he was right. Mr Stowers, aged 21, was to have received an award from the Royal Humane Society last week for rescuing an elderly woman from a burning house. But Mr Stowers, who believed he had been dogged by bad luck all his life, was killed' on his motor-cycle before he could collect the award. His mother, . Mrs Dorothy Stowers, will receive the posthumous award from the Mayor of Manukau, Mr Barry Curtis, on her son’s behalf. Mr Stowers was home from work on September 2,

1982, the day of the rescue which earned him the Humane Society award. Mrs Stowers said he had looked out of the window and saw smoke pouring from Mrs Lava Brown’s house. “He ran to the front door, but it was locked, so he ran to the side window and climbed in,” Mrs Stowers said. The elderly occupant was overcome by smoke and Mr Stowers found her lying near the window. Blinded by smoke, he dragged her through the lounge, guided by calls from his mother, who was waiting at the front. Neighbours were amazed at the way he fought his way through the smoke and flames, she said, but Mr Stowers was apparently embarrassed by the attention. “When he got her out he just put her down on the ground and walked off. He was that kind of guy,” she said. Mrs Stowers said her son was very upset when Mrs Brown died two days later. Mr Stowers suffered another disappointment when he dashed" jh to rescue a young neighbour being beaten up by a gang of

youths. The boy committed suicide days later. On May 23, Mr Stowers came off his bike and was thrown down a bank. His friend, James Adamson, aged 24, staggered to a house for help and collapsed semi-conscious on the doorstep. The occupants found an address on him and took him home, thinking he had been beaten up. He regained his memory the next day but, by the time rescuers returned to the scene, Mr Stowers was dead. Mrs Stowers said it was ironic that her son, who had always helped others, "missed out” himself. His father, Mr Joseph Stowers, said he never realised how popular his son was until he died. One mother told him his son had stopped and saved her daughter who was being bothered by a gang, and got her into a taxi. They discovered he was giving hundreds of dollars of his freezing works pay packet to help unemployed friends support their families. “There were 600 people at his funeral. We were amazed,” Mr Stowers said.