Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning has been praised for helping flood victims in New South Wales after he helped a pharmacist to open up her shop.
As is the case in most parts of northern New South Wales, Murwillumbah is underwater and numerous residents have been left stranded due to the flood crisis.
Pharmacist Skye Swift posted on social media and asked for a ride to work from Tweed to Murwillumbah to make sure residents could access essential medication, The Age reported.
To Skye’s amazement, triple world surfing champion Mick Fanning arrived to help and used his jet ski to help get her to work.
40-year-old Fanning lives on the Gold Coast and has been actively involved in the local community and the local food scene since retiring from surfing.
The surfing great was widely applauded for his efforts with radio host and media personality Jim Wilson tweeting ‘How about mighty Mick, that’s the Aussie spirit right there’.
Skye’s brother, Anthony Piggott, said his sister was ‘determined to serve the Murwillumbah community’.
“She put her challenge to the locals, who enthusiastically responded,” Piggott told the Nine network.
“In a collective effort she arrived at her pharmacy with the assistance of two men in a tinny, several 4WDs and also on the back of world champion Mick Fanning’s jet ski. That’s community spirit for you.”
Later that day, Swift posted on Facebook letting the community know the pharmacy was open.
“Open til 5pm for urgent supplies,” she said.
“There may be a wait so thanks for your patience.”
“If your scripts are at another pharmacy, that’s no problem. We can help.”
2012 world surfing champion and fellow Aussie surf star Joel Parkinson also used his jet ski to help stranded residents during the flood crisis.
Parkinson and Fanning, plus other volunteers, had managed to help dozens of people and pets, with Parkinson describing it as ‘one big community effort’.
“We went to one farmhouse that I thought was one-storey – the water was so high. But it was actually two storeys and I was jet skiing over their cars to get to them,” Parkinson told The Courier Mail.
“We yelled out ‘is anyone home?’ and this four-year-old kid in a life jacket answered the door. We grabbed him, his mum and the dog and got them out of there. Another guy was up in a treehouse with all his supplies.”
