St John Ambulance Cymru’s Marine Division, Ferryside Lifeboat, saved the life of a young man who got stuck out at.
25-year-old Josh Davies from Swansea was on holiday at Kidwelly Holiday Park, on a family break for his son’s birthday. He was enjoying a beach day with his partner and young children when he got stuck out at sea. Luckily, Ferryside Lifeboat was there to bring him to safety.
The father of four was playing football with his young children on the beach when the ball got kicked into the sea. The water was fairly low, so he went in to retrieve it. Before Josh knew it, the tide had come in and he had been stranded on a small part of sand.
“The sea rose from my ankles to my neck in minutes,” Josh recalled. “I was shouting to my family on the shore, and I was really panicking.
Josh managed to swim over to a mooring buoy, where he clung on for several minutes before help arrived. “I lost all feeling in the bottom half of my body and I was so scared” he said, “I thought I was going to die.”
The Ferryside Lifeboat crew quickly arrived on scene. To reach Josh safely, the boat was manoeuvred downstream so that if Josh let go, he could drift down towards it. He was safely brought onto the boat in one swift manoeuvre by volunteers Mike and Dave.
“I can’t thank Ferryside Lifeboat enough, if it wasn’t for them I could have died,” Josh said.
He was brought safely to shore where he was treated by Ferryside Lifeboat volunteers. The Ferryside Team were backed up by a multi-agency response, including a Coastguard rescue helicopter, Burry Port Coastguard, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, South Wales Police along with Burry Port and Tenby lifeboats.
“With the spring tide in full flood the casualty demonstrated great courage and strength by not giving up and holding on until help arrived,” commented Ferryside volunteer Dave Atkinson.
“This scenario demonstrated the high level of skill at Ferryside Lifeboat and joint operability between multiple agencies who work as one team.”
The Ferryside Lifeboat Division of St John Ambulance Cymru was set up in 1966 as the area had become a popular centre for dinghy sailing, power boating and water skiing in the six years following departure of the RNLI lifeboat in 1960. The volunteers work hard to monitor the shores and keep people safe, often playing a lifesaving role on the coast from Pembrey to Pendine up to Laugharne, Carmarthen and Kidwelly.
Josh is understandably shaken up after such a frightening incident but is so thankful to the team at Ferryside who saved him, “I’ll forever be grateful to them,” Josh said. He is now safely back at home with his family.
The team at Ferryside are gearing up for a busy spring and summer period, partaking in regular training exercises to fine tune their rescue skills. The Marine Division of St John Ambulance Cymru is another way the first aid charity for Wales is working hard to keep communities across the country safe.
