I was minutes from dying - then I heard the lifeboat crewman's voice


Mandy Galloway (centre) said it was emotional to be reunited with the lifeboat crew

Hypothermic and clinging to her paddleboard after being swept out to sea, mother-of-four Mandy Galloway felt her life slipping away.

She became colder and colder and lost the feeling in her legs as she drifted off the Fife coast. But just as she gave up hope of help arriving, she heard the friendly voice of a lifeboat crew member.

Mandy has now been reunited with the lifeboat crew who rescued her in July 2023 - and admitted she has not returned to the water since.

"Obviously it's never left me," the 45-year-old from Methil told BBC Scotland News. "That was quite a horrific, traumatic experience, because I was only a couple of minutes from dying, so the emotions are still quite raw even though it was a wee while ago."


The lifeboat crew spotted Mandy 40 minutes after they launched from Anstruther

Mandy had been at Kingsbarns Beach with her partner on a "lovely" summer day when they decided to go paddleboarding. "There was no intention of going anywhere past a few metres, but the wind picked up quite quickly," she said.

Her partner managed to paddle to shore to raise the alarm but Mandy found herself drifting "further and further out". She said: "I was really upset and obviously scared. I was on my knees on the paddle board, holding on to the side." But she was hopeful that she would be rescued soon.

"I knew Anstruther was just around the corner so I was waiting on a boat coming round the corner," she said. "But I was going out further and further and my legs started to go numb because I was on my knees. So I tried to get on to my bum, but when I did the wave caught me and tipped me."


It was the first time Mandy had met the crew since her rescue in July 2023

Mandy said she began to panic when she was under the water, but then started to experience a "surreal calm." She said: "I was talking to my auntie and uncle, who are no longer here, and I think that's what kept my brain going. I was talking to them the whole time, making promises that I would be better with my children, we would make lots of memories, if they could just keep me here."

As she got colder, Mandy said she thought that no one was coming to rescue her. "The waves were getting higher and higher," she said. "I couldn't hear anything but the water, my grip was going. At that point, I just said 'well, if you're going to let me die here, please let me pass out before I go under'."

Then Mandy heard a man's voice saying: "We are so glad to see you."


Scott Brown and Louis McNaught are two of the crew that rescued Mandy

The voice belonged to Scott Brown, a crew member on the D-class inshore lifeboat that had been searching for Mandy after receiving multiple 999 calls.

Scott said: "I think I said 'I'm so glad to see you' and she repeated that back to me. But we realised straight away she was in a really, really bad way."

Mandy had been spotted by Scott's crew mate Louis McNaught. Louis said: "She was very pale, very cold, shivering, barely clinging on to the board."


The crew searched for Mandy using the D-class inshore lifeboat

The crew had been searching for Mandy for more than 40 minutes, while she clung to the board.

Scott said: "The information I was given was a blue and white paddle board, which doesn't help when the sea is blue and white. She was wearing dark clothing, no wetsuit, no lifejacket, so that was really concerning given the sea state and the wind."

With no sign of Mandy at her last known location, the crew extended its search further out.

Scott said: "I think we actually found her almost two miles from her last known location, which is a great distance to have travelled in the sea. When we saw the paddleboard it was instant relief, but we were also still worried. We didn't know if Mandy was attached to the paddle board or is she unconscious, has she drowned?"

Mandy said: "It's kind of hazy but I remember them trying to pull me into the boat. One of the boys on the boat, I remember putting my hand on his leg, I didn't think it was real. He put his hand on my hand, and I was like, oh they are real."


Lifeboat medical advisor John Marston said it was a "huge relief" to get Mandy back to shore

Mandy was given medical assistance after being transferred to the all-weather lifeboat.

Lifeboat medical advisor John Marston said: "We were quite concerned on the journey back, but when we got her into harbour and we saw the paramedics there I think it was a huge relief for everyone."

Mandy said her ordeal did not really sink in for a few days. She said: "I didn't tell any of my family until we got home from hospital. I told my sons and they just broke down crying."

Mandy urged other paddle boarders to take proper precautions before going out on the water. She said: "Obviously don't go dressed like me, try and wear a wetsuit and a lifejacket. I had a swimming costume on, a T-shirt and a pair of Crocs. That's not appropriate."

The RNLI were called out to 13 paddleboard incidents in Scotland last year and 14 the year before.

Lifeboats in Scotland launched 1,172 times last year and 37 lives were saved. The number of callouts were 10 fewer than in 2024.

Scott said: "You really need to be prepared. Check the tides, the weather, the wind speed. Have wetsuits and lifejackets, tell people where you're going, have a mobile phone."

The crew said it had been emotional reuniting with the woman whose life they saved.

Scott said: "It was really nice to meet Mandy again, it's something that doesn't happen often."

Mandy said: "I feel so special to have met the crew that saved me. I can't remember what any of them looked like but their voices are very familiar now that I've met them. They do this unpaid, they are actual heroes."

Woman saved with dogs felt like 'biggest fool'


The crew carried out the rescue on Saturday morning

A woman has said she felt like the "biggest fool" after being rescued alongside her two dogs when they were cut off by a rising tide.

Hannah Murphy was picked up from the beach at West Wittering in West Sussex by a lifeboat crew from Hayling Island, Hampshire, on Saturday morning.

Hannah told the BBC she abandoned an attempt to wade through waist-deep water and managed to call 999 while she waited on a sandbank.

The Coastguard has warned others to be careful in the area.

Hannah said she was not a regular walker at Wittering but had "come for a change of scenery".


Hayling's first ever all-female crew made the rescue

She explained that she started to walk back to shore and realised the tide had come in behind her. "I tried wading through the deeper channel but once it got to waist-height decided it was too deep to continue," she said. "I felt like the biggest fool."

The crew were able to escort Hannah and her pets back to the lifeboat. RNLI Hayling Island said it was the first time it had launched an all female crew, and that this had coincided with International Women's Day.

Selsey Coastguard has warned others to avoid getting themselves into dangerous situations at the beach. "The sand bars at West Wittering Beach go out a long way at low tide," said its spokesperson. "When the tide changes it races in and it’s easy to get cut off quickly, the currents are extremely strong. Do not attempt to cross or enter the water."

RNLI volunteer at Southend records 100th life saved in 40 years


Tony Bonham, 59, says he feels young and has "years" left in him

An RNLI volunteer commander has saved more than 100 people since he signed up 40 years ago.

Tony Bonham has logged 101 lives saved and 953 people aided since Southend-on-Sea station's record-keeping began in 1996, 10 years after he started. He said the real number was probably much higher.

The 59-year-old began volunteering as a lifeguard at nearby Shoebury West beach aged 15, joining the lifeboat team four years later. "We don't look at ourselves as heroes. I've been, I've done a job, I'm getting on with work now... we never look for recognition," he said.

If the person would have drowned without their assistance, it is recorded as a life saved, otherwise it is "assisted".

"There's 100 families plus that have still got their loved ones with them," he said.


Three generations of Bonhams - Tony Bonham with his son Tyler, and his son who "always wants to go down to the lifeboat station"

Bonham said they lose a lot of volunteers due to the commitment that is asked of them. "You can be out days, nights, anniversaries, Christmas Day. If you're on duty and you get a call, you've got to go," he said.

"We could be out at two in the morning... we do the job, we put everything back, make sure it's all ready. We go home to our families and carry on the next day. You might read about it in the paper; you might not."

Bonham says he is "very proud" of his son Tyler, who will soon be starting as a commander at the Gravesend lifeboat in Kent - and the family's involvement looks like it could extend to another generation. "Now his son, who's six, always wants to go down to the lifeboat station. He enjoys the cookies," said Tony.

Talking to Sonia Watson on BBC Essex, he described being called out together with his son for the first time recently. "He was my helm, I was his crew and it was really, really funny him being in charge," he said. "But I still got dressed quicker and was out before him."

He said he never turns his pager off, and returned to duty straight after the interview. "I still feel young. I am young - I'm 59 - got many years in me to go yet," he said.

A lifeboat station is marking its 10-year anniversary – and hundreds of successful operations.

Volunteers at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution station in Portishead, North Somerset, have been called out 396 times since it opened in 2015. They have so far assisted 347 people, saving 14 lives and rescuing 17 dogs.

The station serves the Bristol Channel, which has the second highest tidal range in the world, making conditions hazardous for volunteers. Tom Mansell, regional operations lead, said: "I am extremely grateful for the dedication and professionalism they show on a daily basis."

The RNLI station was preceded by the Portishead Lifeboat Trust, which operated from Sugar Loaf Beach as an independent rescue service for nearly 20 years.

The trust's station was an old shipping container, with basic facilities, which belonged to the Portishead Yacht and Sailing Club.



In 2012, it was agreed that a new location would be secured and the RNLI would then take over operations. The new station was declared operational on 24 April 2015.



Ian Lazenby, a volunteer helm, said witnessing the transition was "really exciting". He said the former facility was "damp and mouldy" but the new station was much improved, with toilets, kettles, seats and central heating.

The RNLI takeover also resulted in additional funding for the station, better equipment and more efficient operations.

A celebration to mark the 10-year anniversary will be held on 18 May to coincide with an open day at the station. The day will include demonstrations and a boat launch, with other local emergency services joining in.

"You get a lot from the teamwork, you get a lot from the training, but genuinely for me – in the 20 years I've been doing it – it's the satisfaction of knowing if somebody's in trouble, we'll go and help them," Mr Lazenby said.  "Anything you do when you're helping others is hugely satisfying; to be able to do that is a real privilege."

Remembering the heroes of the Penlee Lifeboat the Solomon Browne who died during 'the greatest act of courage'

They set to sea in waves so huge that the spray hit an RNAS Culdrose helicopter hovering 400 feet above

Today, December 19, marks the anniversary of one worst tragedies in the history of the RNLI - and an event which saw eight brave lifeboat men lose their lives in a remarkable act of courage.

Just days before Christmas, the Penlee lifeboat the Solomon Browne was launched from its station near Mousehole in Cornwall, to go to the aid of a the Union Star, a stricken coaster which was being swept towards the cliffs after its engines failed.

The cargo ship's crew of five - and the captain's wife and teenager stepdaughters, who were also aboard - were all in mortal danger, and would also lose their lives in the tragedy that unfolded.

The weather that night was so fierce that lifeboat Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards famously refused to take two members of the same family as crew.

And so Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman went to sea, while his son Neil, who would later become coxswain of the Penlee Lifeboat, stayed behind as the 47-foot Solomon Browne battled hurricane force winds - and seas so huge spray from the waves hit the cockpit windows of an RNAS Culdrose helicopter hovering 400 feet above.

The helicopter's pilot, a Lieutenant Commander from the US navy called Russell Smith, watched as a huge wave picked up the lifeboat and hurled it onto the deck of the stricken cargo ship, at the foot of cliffs near Tater Du Lighthouse, a mile west of Lamorna Cove in West Cornwall.

Lt Cmdr Smith would later recall how the lifeboat stayed there, stranded, for a few seconds – then the Union Star listed in the waves, and the lifeboat slid off, back into the sea.

Incredibly, in an awe-inspiring display of seamanship, the Lifeboat's coxswain, William Trevelyan Richards, used that momentum to tuck the lifeboat alongside the Union Star.

The helicopter pilot said he saw Solomon Browne 's crew run out on deck and, with their arms outstretched and the ocean exploding around them, they urged the children, women and men aboard the Union Star to leap for their lives.

In a radio message to the Falmouth Coastguard at 9.21pm, the lifeboat's mechanic, James Madron, said: "This is the Penlee Lifeboat. Penlee Lifeboat calling Falmouth Coastguard. We got four men off – look, er, hang on – we got four off at the moment, er, ma… male and female. There’s two left on board…’

The message was interrupted by a loud thud and screech, as the lifeboat was either dashed against rocks, or smashed against the hull of the Union Star. And then the radio fell silent. Radio contact with the lifeboat had been lost.

However, Lt Cmdr Smith still had visual contact, and said Solomon Browne appeared to be heading back out to sea. Convinced the lifeboat was returning to port, Lt Cmdr Smith did the same - and so no one witnessed what happened next.

It's believed the crew of the Penlee Lifeboat, after a collision took out their radio, went back for the two people left on board the Union Star – and to search for two others thought to be in the water.

The Solomon Browne was never seen again and 16 lives - all of the lifeboat crew eight and the eight people aboard the Union Star - were lost at sea.

Some, but not all, of the bodies were eventually recovered.

Missing dog rescued from Devon cliff by RNLI


An RNLI lifeboat crew found Sprig on a ledge while on a training exercise on Sunday

A dog which was missing for more than a week has been rescued from a cliff ledge and reunited with his owners.

Sprig the springer spaniel disappeared while out for a walk with his owners on 22 August near Foreland Point, Devon.

An RNLI lifeboat crew from Minehead, Somerset, found the nine-year-old dog on a ledge while on a training exercise on Sunday.

Sprig's owners said it was "the best news ever".

The crew approached the cliffs after believing a sheep was trapped on the ledge, when they noticed the dog further down the cliff.

Helmsman Andrew Escott said: "We went in as close as we could and then we could see it was a dog. It was about 30ft (9.2m) above the water and we couldn't work out how it had got in that position."


The RNLI crew jumped on to the cliff ledge to rescue the dog

Mr Escott managed to jump ashore and climbed up to rescue Sprig. "He had clearly been there for some time because he was licking water off my dry suit and he did seem rather pleased to see us," he said.

Owners, Mark and Susie Sanders, from Wheddon Cross, near Minehead, said: "We were coming to the conclusion that he must have wandered off and then been stolen. I just could not believe it when we had a call to say the lifeboat crew had spotted him and rescued him. It's amazing, the best news ever."

The crew of a Cornish lifeboat who were killed in a disaster 30 years ago have been remembered by their present-day colleagues.

On 19 December 1981 hurricane force winds blew the cargo ship Union Star off course after it suffered engine failure.

The Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne launched into difficult waters, but never returned.

There were no survivors from the Union Star and the lifeboat was completely wrecked with the loss of its crew of eight. In total there were 16 casualties.