As the evening approached at Aberavon Beach on the south Wales coast, the RNLI lifeguard team were packing up their kit – but their work was not over for the day …

Sun and sand had attracted thousands of visitors to the 3-mile long beach on Sunday 22 June. Among them were Thomas Redmond and his pregnant girlfriend Katie.

At around 5.50pm, father-to-be Thomas was happily paddling his kayak 100m out when the wind got up, and the waves started filling his craft with water. The unbalanced kayak suddenly tipped Thomas into the sea and, as much as he tried, he couldn’t get back aboard. Tired, cold, and wet, he had no choice but to cling to the side and hope for help.

Back on the beach, five young men saw what happened and started swimming out to Thomas.

By now, it was 5.57pm. Lifeguards Anthony Bowen, Hannah Griffiths and Richard Evans heard the Coastguard call. ‘We had been packing up for the day and washing down the equipment on a different part of the beach when the call came,’ says Richard, who started up the lifeguard 4x4 vehicle and raced to the scene. ‘The adrenaline just took over. I took a rescue board and hurried into the sea.’ Richard (pictured left) paddled as hard as he could. Within minutes he reached the exhausted kayaker, who by now could barely keep his head above the water.

While Richard supported Thomas on the board, the five onlookers who swam out to help also reached the kayak. Now they were tired and cold too – and clung to the side of the kayak, which was in danger of sinking.

Fortunately, the lifeguards weren’t the only RNLI lifesavers who had received the Coastguard’s call. Port Talbot’s volunteer lifeboat crew members were in their boathouse nearby when their pagers rang out. They immediately launched their D class lifeboat Nigel Martin Spender and were alongside Lifeguard Richard and kayaker Thomas in minutes. They pulled Thomas onboard, and then four of the swimmers.

Helm Ashley Jones then headed for shore and beached the D class. Meanwhile Richard paddled the other swimmer back on the rescue board. All five swimmers were checked over and found to be okay.

Thomas was not so lucky – he was in shock, was totally exhausted and had swallowed a lot of water. Waiting paramedics set to work on him, fearing there could be later complications. They ensured he was stable before taking him to hospital. But, after a few hours of rest, and feeling a bit better, Thomas sent a message to say thank you. He later visited the lifeboat station to meet up with his rescuers.

‘I can’t remember a time I’ve ever had to depend on the emergency services in my life,’ says the grateful kayaker. ‘It is fair to say it was the scariest situation I’ve ever been in. Thanks to the RNLI team who made such a quick response.’

'The quickest launch I've ever done'

John Perring, Ashley Jones and Kyle James were the crew on the Port Talbot lifeboat for this rescue. John Perring says: ‘It had to be the quickest lifeboat launch I have ever done. We were on the water within 3 minutes. When you hear the words “drowning”, you switch into another gear.’

JOHN PERRING | ASHLEY JONES | KYLE JAMES
INSHORE CREW | PORT TALBOT