Nottingham attack victim Grace O’Malley-Kumar will be awarded the George Medal for stepping in to protect her friend before being killed in a knife rampage.
The teenager, who was violently stabbed to death in Nottingham city centre in June 2023, will receive the honour, a civilian award for bravery, after being recommended by King Charles.
The medical student, 19, was murdered as she tried to save Barnaby Webber from paranoid schizophrenic knifeman Valdo Calocane, who also killed schoool caretaker Ian Coates.
Miss O’Malley-Kumar will become a posthumous recipient of the award, which was founded in 1940 to recognise ‘the greatest heroism or of the most courage in circumstances of extreme danger’.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and predecesor Rishi Sunak were among the MPs to have called for the talent hockey player to be given the medal.
Her parents have both supported the call and last year said they were ‘humbled’ by the suggestion she should be recognised for her bravery.
Her mother Sinead O’Malley said it ‘would be a remarkable acknowledgement of her bravery’, while her father added the ‘world deserves people like Grace’.
‘Grace was an athlete. She could have easily run away but her instinct was to stand by her friend and she paid the ultimate price for her courage,’ a family friend told The Sun.
‘She was 19 when she put her life on the line and valiantly fought a 30-year-old armed with a large hunting knife.
‘The family are so proud of Grace because this act shows exactly the person they knew her to be — someone who never abandoned a friend.’
The University of Nottingham student and England under-18s hockey player died a hero as she courageously fought off 32-year-old Calocane while walking home from a night out in Nottingham just after 4am.
She stepped in as Mr Webber was stabbed 10 times, screaming ‘Don’t do it’ and ‘Why would you do that?’ before fighting for 30 seconds as she suffered 23 wounds.
Miss O’Malley-Kumar’s bravery was recognised during a court hearing in which her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar praised his daughter as a hero who shunned the opportunity to run away.
At sentencing, a judge recognised Miss O’Malley-Kumar’s incredible ‘sacrifice’ and ‘astonishing bravery’.
After attacking the students, Calocane repeatedly knifed 65-year-old Coates before stealing his van which he used to ram into three other people. They all survived.
The killer was handed a hospital order for manslaughter by diminished responsibility. Mr Webber’s mother said ‘true justice’ was not served.
A public inquiry into the killings began in May after it emerged last year that the NHS trust which treated him missed at least eight opportunities to stop him.
