Brave Wetaskiwin teen honoured by Queen Elizabeth

In July of 2015, Tyler Bailer was in his basement at home in Wetaskiwin when he heard his mother scream.

Upstairs, his stepfather David had collapsed. His heart had stopped.

Bailer ran upstairs and immediately started CPR, working until paramedics arrived.

His stepfather was able to make a full recovery, thanks to Bailer's lifesaving effort.

The now 18-year-old is modest about the whole thing.

"First time I went in to see him, all the nurses and people who worked on him were asking about me," he said Tuesday in an interview from England.

"Like, who did CPR to begin with? I guess I did a good job because he's still with us."

On Tuesday, Bailer was at Buckingham Palace, where he was presented with the Russell Medal by Queen Elizabeth.

'I was talking to the Queen not too long ago," he said. "Never thought I would get to say that."

"Right before she walked up to me I thought ''Oh, I've really got the butterflies now.'

"But I just shook her hand, and just [tried to] think of her like a normal person. Just kind of have a normal conversation, although she's the Queen so it's kind hard to do."

The Russell Medal, established in 2000, is a Royal Life Saving Society award recognizingthe most outstanding resuscitation or attempted resuscitation of a person in the previous calendar year by a person under 18 years of age.

For Bailer, what he did that day in Wetaskiwin was all thanks to the lifesaving courses he's been taking since he was six.

He currently competes at provincial, national and international lifesaving events.

His father, Cameron Bailer, never expected putting him in the pool would eventually lead to meeting theQueen.

"You know, when we put Tyler in lifesaving when he was six, we had no idea that it would lead to something like this," Bailer's father said.

"It has just been a journey, between his competitions going international and this. It has just been an incredible ride with him."

Bailer is still deciding if he wants to pursue a career in thelifesaving field.

But it's safe to say having the Queen as a reference may give him a leg up on the competition.