Honey Badger Nick Cummins saves little girl from choking on lolly in Melbourne park

Rugby union player and TV personality Nick Cummins has saved a little girl from choking during her birthday celebrations.

The star, known as the Honey Badger, sprung into action when three-year-old Maddy began choking on a soft lolly at Lower Eltham Park Playground in Melbourne last Saturday.

The girl’s mother was “beside herself” as she unsuccessfully tried to offer Maddy first aid, the young girl’s grandmother Robyn Reeder said in a post on social media.

“Then a ‘big strong bloke’ appeared from nowhere.”

It was the Honey Badger, and Reeder said Cummins “held Maddy upside down” and gave her a couple “strong thumps which successfully dislodged (the lolly) from her trachea.”

“God bless you, whoever you are, we will all be forever grateful to you. Each year we will remember you.”

Cummins’ partner Alexandra George commented on the Facebook post, identifying the young girl’s celebrity saviour.

“This was my partner, Nick. We are soooo relieved little Maddy is okay.”

“We were supposed to have left the park five minutes earlier, and Nick wasn’t going to come to the park that day.

“Absolute divine timing.”

‘It was pretty full on’

Cummins told 2GB radio that he was pushing his kids on the swing when he saw the little girl choking.

“I saw a mum running with a young little girl in her hand, and she was pretty panicked,” he said.

“This particular lolly was pretty big. She was starting to change colour, there was a bit of froth, and yeah it was pretty full on.

“When it happens and you’re in the moment, you just rip in and do your best.

“Thank god the thing just popped out, and then she was off running and asking for another lolly about five minutes later.”

Cummins credited his ability to get the lolly out, to the CPR Kids First Aid course that both he and George took after their first child was born, which George said has “paid itself off a million times now”.

“It’s also pretty crazy as a mother to see the power you need to dislodge the lolly.”

Maddy’s mother Bronwyn Pietsch said on social media that, amid the chaos, it took her a moment to realise who has saved her daughter’s life.

“It was such a whirlwind moment that it took me a few minutes before I thought he looked familiar,” she said.

“Saved us all that day, so I’ll be eternally grateful.”