A mum has described the "nightmare" moment her two young daughters were swept out to sea while on a family holiday.
Milena Smith, from Birkenhead, was enjoying a day out in Barmouth, Wales, with her husband and their two daughters. Mabel, 12 and Elsie, 10, were playing in the water when they started to get into difficulty.
Milena, who can't swim, was forced to watch helplessly as the sisters started "screaming loudly" and began drifting further and further out. Milena shouted to her husband who managed to get Elsie to safety, however Mabel was completely out of sight after having been swept a quarter of a mile out to sea.
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The mum-of-two, who is originally from Poland, said: "One minute the girls, who can swim, were playing in the sea up to their waist, it seemed so lovely and calm. There were lots of people swimming.
"Very quickly, the girls started heading further and further out and screaming loudly. It was like a scene from a nightmare, I can’t swim and just felt so helpless.
"My husband went in and managed to get to my youngest daughter, who thankfully started to feel sand beneath her feet as she had reached a sandbank, but my eldest Mabel was completely out of sight.
"I was in such a state of panic. My English is very good but I found myself lacking vocabulary for technical terms, especially not living by the sea."
Before being pulled to safety, Elsie remembered what she had learned about the RNLI’s Float to Live advice during swimming lessons at school and began frantically shouting for her sister to "float like a starfish". The Float to Live campaign advises anyone who finds themselves in trouble in the water to lean back and spread their arms and legs to stay afloat before calling for help or swimming to safety.
Milena, who believes Mabel is only alive today because of Elsie's quick-thinking actions, called the Coastguard who managed to pluck the 12-year-old to safety. Milena said: "I called 999 and asked for the Coastguard and I have nothing but praise for the call handler who was so calming and helped me to pinpoint exactly where Mabel had entered the water.
"It was so reassuring to see the lifeboat heading out there. I can’t believe the float advice is not taught to children everywhere, it’s a vital skill everyone should learn as you never know when you may need it.
"As a non-swimmer at my age, this has prompted me to now learn how to swim. I’m just so grateful Elsie has heard this advice or our holiday could have ended very differently and it doesn’t bear thinking about."
HM Coastguard received multiple 999 calls from concerned members of the public reporting three people in the water at Barmouth. Barmouth RNLI’s inshore lifeboat was launched alongside Barmouth and Aberdovey coastguard rescue teams and the coastguard helicopter from Caernarfon.
The family will be visiting the area once again today to pay a special thank you to the RNLI and HM Coastguard teams who came to their rescue. They will be reunited with Daryl James, an RNLI volunteer at Barmouth, who was onboard the lifeboat, and Ben Hiller, HM Coastguard Maritime Operations Officer, who coordinated the rescue and was on the phone to Milena throughout.
Mr James said: "When you get the call to people in the water there is a massive sense of urgency as it really can be a life or death situation. When we arrived, the young girl, who despite her serious predicament had remained calm and was floating on her back with waves breaking over her.
"When we found out float advice was given to Mabel by her little sister, we were all quite overwhelmed and so relieved this small piece of advice helped to save a life. It’s very difficult to fight the instinct to panic, but Mabel did really well in staying calm and gently floating until help arrived.
He added: "At Barmouth, it’s so easy to get swept out by a fast-flowing tide and we hope people take heed of this advice and learn from this experience; take safety very seriously before visiting the coast or things could turn very quickly. We want people to enjoy our fantastic coastline, but we’d urge them to visit our website and ensure they are equipped with all the correct information before heading to the coast.
"We are incredibly grateful to the family for making the trip back to Barmouth today, by sharing their story, the float advice will hopefully save more lives. It is humbling for us all to meet with the family, especially for our volunteer Kyle Smith - it was actually his first rescue as a helm and indeed quite a dramatic one."
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