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."

Wondering how much of the expense is for work to the in-use frieght line vs the cost of work to the out-of-use section & new station at Portishead.

It would be useful to have a single-page schedule from the perpetrators to the effect: 'This is what we need to do and here are the dates when we'll be undertaking those tasks'.

Mark

Government ministers have had to approve an additional £14.69m for the project to reopen the railway between Bristol and Portishead. The scheme is already well underway, with vegetation cleared along the three mile route and work beginning on the construction compounds for the new stations in Pill and Portishead.

The cost of the scheme has increased by almost £50m since January 2025. The scheme had been set to cost £152.01m but inflation and rising costs saw this increase to £182.21m as of July 2025. Now, following the tender process and negotiations to appoint the contractors to deliver the track infrastructure, civil engineering, and signals and controls, the price tag has risen again to £196.9m.

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Ah............obviously a MAGA supporter !!!   

As you specifically selected, I believe that no.7 may be the exception in this set.  I had my doubts about including that one in this thread.   "Art" is in the eye of the beholder ...

Have you seen the buckets of water and brushes near the stop boards at stations like Westbury and Reading? Are they still there?  A low-tech solution to what looks like an industry-wide issue.

I wouldn't want to sit anywheere with Bill Clinton looking over my shoulder

Street Art or Grafitti or Criminal Damage? My view is that to be Street Art the daubing has to have a degree of artistic merit and, for example, I reckon Picture 7 is completely lacking in this.

Also the paint should only have been applied with the express permission of the property owner.

And where do you draw the line concerning images which some people would regard as offensive?

Service 9, between Swindon and Wroughton will be withdrawn completely due to low passenger numbers. Customers can continue to travel between Swindon town centre and Wroughton using Service 49, which runs every 30 minutes.

Service 49, between Swindon, Wroughton, Devizes and Trowbridge will see a route alternation to serve the former bus station, improving access to the railway station, as the current stop on Fleming Way is too far for passengers.

There will also be general retiming and journey adjustments to better meet passenger demand, and additional evening journeys to replace funded service 9 journeys.

The route has also been revised to better connect with Wiltshire College in Trowbridge, with a new morning journey added to complement the existing afternoon service.

From Railway Gazette

Starting this summer, railway afficionados will be able to make a record-long train journey within the EU.

And for those seeking the old-time romance of the rails, the key to the new route is a evocatively restored station in Haparanda, Sweden, dating back to 1919.

When a long-awaited rail link opens between northern Finland and Sweden, it will be possible to travel some 5,000km by train from Portugal's Algarve to Kolari in Lapland – Finland's northernmost station.

Alstom, in conjunction with its cleaning contractor, OCS, has developed a solution to clean the windscreens of Avanti West Coast’s Pendolino fleet by hand at its Traincare Centre in Polmadie, Glasgow.

Previously, because of overhead live wires in the depot, windscreen cleaning had to be carried out at track level. However, a spotless clean could not be achieved due to insufficient water pressure reaching the brush at that distance.

The solution makes use of mobile staging, which, by isolating the overhead electricity supply, allows cleaners to get closer access to the Pendolino windscreens, especially the edges of windscreens that automated train washes cannot completely clean.

East West Rail (EWR) has released details of its promised final route-wide consultation despite new rules brought in by the Planning and Infrastructure Act making the engagement not statutory.

The new railway linking Oxford and Cambridge confirmed earlier this year it would still carry out the full public consultation for the remaining sections of the line despite the Planning and Infrastructure Bill removing the legal requirement to do so.

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The Royal Scotsman brought its passengers to the Clyde coast on Sunday as part of a three-night scenic tour for rail tourists taking in all the beauty of the west coast.

The train which takes passengers on a once in a lifetime 'Western Scenic Wonders' tour has a luxury onboard spa and dining with tickets costing up to almost £20,000 for the full tour.

The Royal Scotsman is scheduled to be a regular visitor to Wemyss Bay over the coming months, bringing her passengers to the coast for a trip across the water to Bute and a visit to the stunning Gothic mansion of Mount Stuart.

The train is one of several rail experiences offered by luxury tour company Belmond across the UK and Europe.