King Charles III will be awarding the first batch of Medals of Courage to a young British woman who saved her sister from a crocodile attack in June 2021 in the Manialtepec lagoon in Mexico.
Now 31, Georgia told the Daily Mail how she fought off a crocodile to save her twin sister Melissa: "I started hitting it with both fists. It felt hard as a rock, like I was punching a wall".
In the first phase, Georgia slapped the crocodile repeatedly in the face with one hand, while holding her sister's unconscious head above water with the other.
When they thought they were safe, the crocodile attacked again and trapped Melissa, trying to drown her; but Georgia punched the crocodile again until it let go of her sister: "It felt like the attack was going to last forever".
The sisters were then rescued by a boat and taken to hospital. Melissa had serious injuries all over her body and developed sepsis as a result of her injuries. Heroine Georgia was "only" bitten on the hand.
Georgia will now be immortalized in the "King's Civilian Bravery List", the first ever approved by Charles III. This award is, for the sisters, the "softening of an entire traumatic experience".
"What has made this story so incredible is Melissa's unwavering courage throughout everything, because she was so strong and I don't think I would be here without her (...) when I realized that Melissa wasn't responding, I thought: 'I want to die, I don't want to live any more'," she said.
