2024 Winner
Emily Greenwood
Mum swam 400m in icy winter seas to save a 10-year-old boy and a man after they were dragged out by powerful currents..
Emily Greenwood was walking on the beach with her son in January 2023 when she heard screams. A young boy, who had been playing on a bodyboard in the shallows, wearing a wetsuit to protect him from the cold water, was overwhelmed by a powerful rip current and dragged out to sea.
The man who was with the 10-year-old boy dived in to help him but he too was swept away, and both struggled as they fought against the tide. Emily, 52, whose son uses a wheelchair, pushed her boy to safety before running to the water’s edge at Holywell Bay in Cornwall, where she lives.
She shouted out to the pair, telling them to swim across the current, not against it. But when they failed to respond, growing weaker as they were pulled further out, Emily stripped down to her underwear, jumped into the surf and swam out to reach them, helping them to stay calm and keep a tight hold of the bodyboard. She says: “I was shouting at them, ‘swim across’ but it wasn’t working and I realised I had to go in. It was freezing cold and I soon realised I was going to have to swim out to them so I just took a deep breath and went. The man was hyperventilating but the boy was able to talk.
“I just reassured them and told them what we needed to do to get to safety.” The mum of three then began the back-breaking task of towing them to shore across the rip current, traversing 400 metres in the rough winter water.
By the time they made it back, the man was in a state of hypothermic collapse. Emily explains: “As soon as the boy could stand he ran for his mum but the man totally crumpled and went under the waves, that’s when I was really scared, but I managed to hold him out of the water and, with help, get him on to the beach.” Exhausted by her efforts, she then ran to grab her son’s blanket to warm the man up before he was taken to hospital by helicopter.
Emily, who is a member of Holywell Bay Surf Life Saving Club but not a trained lifeguard, says: “It’s amazing to think that I’ve saved somebody’s life but really I just thought that I needed to help. I think most people would in that situation.
“So much could have gone wrong. I was very, very lucky. We all were. It could have ended very differently. “I feel honoured to have won a Pride of Britain award when there are so many people out there doing brave things.”