Fife paddleboarder swept to sea reunited with RNLI crew which saved her life

Mandy Galloway, 45, was wearing only a swimming costume, a T-shirt and a pair of Crocs, and suffered hypothermia and exhaustion after she was swept away.

She was paddleboarding with her partner off the coast of Kingsbarns when the pair were caught in 30mph winds and a heavy swell. Her partner managed to paddle to shore and raised the alarm, but Mandy was blown further out.

"He was shouting to keep paddling, but I was getting swept out really quickly," said the mum of four from Methil. "We were that far at that point that you could hardly see the people on the beach.

"At that point I just decided to hold on. The wind was carrying me that fast. I hoped somebody would be coming, but I wasn't prepared for how long I'd be holding on."

Mandy was left clinging to her board until a wave flipped her upside town and she went under the surface.

She managed to hold onto the upturned boards fin and held on "for dear life".

"I started to get colder and colder," she said. "I'd been on my knees on the paddleboard, holding on, but I lost feeling in my legs. They went numb. I fell in - the paddleboard flipped. I managed to get a hold of it.

"The hand that was holding onto the fin was so cold, that was really starting to lose grip. At that point I thought, 'please let me pass out before I fall in. I didn't want to drown'.

"I remember my teeth chattering so much I thought they would break. I have never been that cold before. There was no panic - I just thought, you are going to die here.

"I lost hope probably in the last few minutes before they got to me. I thought I was going to die.

"I would say, probably before the life crew got to me, I was minutes away from just letting go."

Two RNLI lifeboats launched from Anstruther, and the crew spotted Mandy, two miles from her last known location, after 90 minutes in the water.

Scott Brown, who was one of three crew on board the smaller inshore lifeboat, said: "At the end of the search there was still no casualty. That's when we then went to local knowledge. We knew which way the tide was going, the wind, and we extended the search. At that point, we're really concerned - all three of us were worried that, basically, we were looking for needle in a haystack."

Fellow crew member Louis McNaught spotted the paddleboard after it crested a wave.

"She was hanging on to the paddleboard when we spotted her," he said. "The conditions were really difficult - blue and white waves, and we were searching for a blue and white paddleboard."

Mandy was given immediate medical assistance after the ordeal in July 2023, but thankfully made a full recovery and returned home to her children. Now, two years later, she has returned to thank the crew that saved her.

"I was swept out over two miles to sea, and the RNLI saved me," she said. "They are heroes. They're heroes in a lot of people's eyes, and they're definitely in mine and my family.

"Without them, I wouldn't be here. So everybody's grateful for what they do, and for the voluntary job that they do. I can't ask enough for people to donate. It's an amazing job that they do. I just felt so grateful, so grateful. My kids are like my world, so that just meant everything to me."

"And since then, I've got three grandkids that I would never have got to see, and I've waited for that for so long, to have grandkids, so that I'm grateful for as well."