Littlehampton RNLI crew member abandons supermarket shop to save lives at sea
A volunteer crew member from Littlehampton RNLI abandoned a visit to the supermarket mid-shop to assist a paraglider near Worthing Pier.
Trainee Crew, Bea Homer, was at Morrisons, in Littlehampton, at 10.14am on Saturday (8 April) when Littlehampton RNLI were tasked by HM Coastguard following reports that a paraglider was in the sea near Worthing Pier.
When Bea’s pager alerted her to the incident, she left her shopping with staff at the supermarket and raced to Littlehampton RNLI Lifeboat Station to join the crew on the station’s Renee Sherman lifeboat. HM Coastguard had received reports that the paraglider’s occupant was in the water and that a number of people had entered the sea to assist them.
Littlehampton RNLI’s volunteer crew arrived on the scene at the same time as Shoreham Harbour RNLI, but both lifeboats were stood down when HM Coastguard confirmed that everyone had been recovered to shore safely.
When Renee Sherman returned to Littlehampton RNLI, Bea was able to go back to Morrisons to retrieve her shopping. Staff at the supermarket had carefully stored her chilled goods in their fridge and gave Bea a £5 donation for the lifeboat station.
Bea said: ‘People often ask me “Do you really drop everything when the pager goes off?” and the answer is, yes! I was standing in the middle of the supermarket and just had to go! You don’t think about it, you just react. Thank you so much to the friendly staff at Morrisons who were so kind and helpful.’
Nick White, Littlehampton RNLI’s Lifeboat Operations Manager, and Deputy Launching Authority for this incident, added: ‘The volunteer crew of Littlehampton RNLI are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As Bea’s experience shows, we really do drop everything to answer the call for help. Although on this occasion everyone was safe and well, we are always ready to save lives at sea.’
ENDS
Notes to editors
Littlehampton RNLI’s volunteer crew look after the stretch of the West Sussex coast between Bognor Regis and Worthing. Littlehampton RNLI is independent from the Coastguard and receives no government funding. To find out more about Littlehampton RNLI, see https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2022/april/27/10-facts-about-littlehampton-rnli-lifeboat-station
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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 142,700 lives.
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