Paddleboarder reunited with RNLI crew after terrifying rescue off Fife coast

Mandy Galloway said she was “minutes away from just letting go” when the voice of an RNLI crewman reached her across the waves off the Fife coast. What began as a summer paddleboarding outing with her partner in July 2023 turned into a near-fatal emergency within moments, after the wind suddenly picked up and dragged them out to sea.

Galloway, 45, from Methil, was swept about two miles offshore off Kingsbarns. Her partner managed to paddle back to shore and raise the alarm, but Galloway was left clinging to her board’s fin in a swimming costume, T-shirt and Crocs as the water turned colder and the search widened around her.

Two RNLI lifeboats were launched from Anstruther lifeboat station. The inshore lifeboat crew faced choppy conditions, a white paddleboard underside that was hard to pick out on the water, and Galloway’s blue clothing, which blended into the sea. Scott Brown said the team drew on local knowledge of the tide and wind to extend the search, while Louis McNaught eventually spotted the paddleboard after it crested a wave.

By then, Galloway said she had become hypothermic and felt she was only “a couple of minutes from dying.” The rescue turned on timing, visibility and experience: her partner’s quick trip back to shore, the alarm raised in time, and the crews’ ability to read the water when a straight search would have failed. It was the kind of layered response the RNLI’s volunteer system is built for, with lifeboat crews, local weather sense and fast deployment all working together in minutes rather than hours.

Galloway later reunited with the volunteer crew who saved her life, describing the encounter as “amazing.” The emotional moment brought her face to face with the men who found her in conditions that had made the board almost impossible to spot. She said the experience remained “quite raw” and that she had not returned to the water since the rescue.

The RNLI says its crews and lifeguards have saved more than 146,000 lives since the charity was founded in 1824, and marked its 200th anniversary in 2024. For Galloway, those numbers now carry a personal meaning: a routine day on the water, a sudden shift in the wind, and a search that reached her in time.