My Story

My dear friend Corns (husband to my best pal Sally), owes his life to the RNLI, this is his story….

5 Years ago, on a windy saturday in February, I'd gone sailing with a friend, Spencer to look at the windfarm 6 miles off Shoreham, when the weather unexpectedly severely deteriorated. An unusually large wave knocked the boat flat and threw me off into the freezing water. My crew was unable to control the boat and she was quickly swept away, out of sight. Thankfully Spencer was able to raise the alarm with the RNLI, who are stationed at Shoreham Harbour. They came out so quickly and miraculously managed to locate me in the very choppy and confused sea, but the waves were too big for them to pull me out without risking serious injury, so they called and directed a Coastguard Rescue helicopter and a crewman came down on a wire and winched me out! In the nick of time as by then I was losing consciousness and was close to drowning, with only my lifejacket keeping my head above water. I was later informed that I had been in the freezing water for 37 minutes.
The RNLI are staffed entirely by volunteers and rely solely on donations. They were there for me when it really, really mattered and I will always be indebted to the dedication, skill and commitment of those heroes of the RNLI and the Coastguard.
And thank you Claire for going out running on their behalf x