First shout aboard Anstruther Lifeboat for a mother and school student duo

Louise Mcnicoll and Danielle Marr were paged, alongside their fellow volunteers, at Anstruther RNLI to assist a 28 foot vessel that had encountered mechanical failure off the coast of Crail.

Danielle, a pupil at the towns Waid Academy, was doing her senior buddy duties with a junior pupil in a science class when her pager alerted her to the request to launch by the UK Coastguard. Danielle swiftly exited the school and travelled the short distance to the lifeboat station. Simultaneously, Louise, a mother of two was getting her son ready for nursery when the pager sounded and she ushered the youngster out the door with her to respond.

Both Danielle and Louise have volunteered at the lifeboat station for a number of months now, fine tuning the skills required in training exercises to prepare them for the eventuality of a shout coming in.

On arrival at the location of the vessel, Danielle and Louise put into practice the rope work they have worked on in previous weeks by securing a towing line to the casualty vessel under the supervision of the coxswain and senior crew before the short journey to the sanctuary of Anstruther harbour commenced.

Danielle commented, ‘I was assisting a junior pupil in a science class when my pager sounded. It was a strange feeling as it’s the first time I have heard the pager go off in school and the teachers and staff were great to allow me to exit so quickly. The shout itself went exactly to plan as we regularly practice towing the all-weather lifeboat with our D class and vice versa so it wasn’t the first time that myself or Louise have worked on this task but it certainly was a different feeling doing it in a shout scenario’.

Louise was also delighted to respond in a successful shout for Anstruther lifeboat and said, ‘I was getting my son ready for nursery when my pager sounded. I had the added extra of dropping my son at my mum’s house on the way to the station. It was great to see the training we practice put into action and having my first shout alongside Danielle was an added bonus. The senior crew assisted us in what we had to do and all in all it was a job well done’.

The lifeboat returned to station this afternoon and Danielle and Louise each returned to their respective Wednesday’s ready to negotiate school classes, childcare or whatever challenges may face our crews the next time the RNLI are paged to respond to an emergency call.

RNLI Media Contacts: Martin MacNamara, volunteer lifeboat press officer at Anstruther, 07969 773075

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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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