On 4 August 2010, Sue went to dinner at a house rented by some visitors. She says: ‘As I walked back home about 1am along a narrow track, I turned my ankle and heard the bone snap. I had to inch my way up the steep hill back to the house, which must have taken over an hour. Indoors at 3.30am, I felt my teeth chattering and thought I was going into shock, so called for the lifeboat.’

The nearest lifeboat, stationed at Valentia, was already out on a 9-hour shout. So the call came in to Fenit, whose crew would have to cover more than four times the distance, through exposed waters, in force 6 winds and a rough sea.

Woken at 3.51am, Fenit crew launched the Trent class lifeboat Robert Hywell Jones Williams 7 minutes later. Crew Member Lee Sugrue says: ‘It was pitch black and we couldn’t see a thing, but every fourth or fifth wave – we could just feel it was a big one when we came off it.’

At around 6am, the lifeboat moored just off the island. Shallow water and a small slipway meant that the crew had to get ashore, two at a time, in the Trent’s XP daughter boat, helmed by Kevin Deady. Lee was one of the first on the island: ‘There was a man 30m up the side of the hill, and he pointed the direction – it was the very top house. Off up I went with the first aid kit and the Entonox. I found Sue in extreme pain.’

Three more crew had soon made the steep climb to Sue’s hut, almost half a mile inland and 180m above sea level, armed with a standard stretcher that turned out to be too wide for the tiny door. They strapped her in tightly and carried her on her side out of the hut, before starting their treacherous descent. Lee says: ‘The northern side of the island was slippery with dew at that time of the morning, and it was very difficult coming down. We stretchered her to the small, slippery slipway, onto the XP boat and onto the lifeboat. In the conditions she was in a lot of pain hitting the waves, so we decided to take her to Dingle.’

It took just over an hour to get to Dingle, from where Sue was taken to Tralee General Hospital. Lee says: ‘We had a quick cup of coffee and a sandwich in Dingle, before heading back, ready for service at 1pm.’

Sue had suffered two bad breaks in her ankle and needed an operation but is looking forward to getting back to the island in the Spring. She says: ‘I remember how gently the lifeboat crew managed to get me down to the pier. The last stretch is over steep uneven rocks and must have been very difficult.’

Kevin adds: ‘It was very different from our usual call outs. There was no boat on the island for her to get off. She would have been fairly stuck, and we appreciate that we’ve been able to help.’