A woman from Porthcawl who’s gone above and beyond to save lives at sea has shared what the responsibilities are really like as an RNLI volunteer in Wales, and the kinds of incidents she has had to face. Aileen Jones, 59, has been a part of the force in Porthcawl for almost 30 years, and has even received an MBE for her outstanding work.
In 2016, she was given the medal for her services to the charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. And before that, in 2004, she became the first woman in 116 years to receive an RNLI bravery award, after she rescued two fishermen in gale force winds and gigantic waves in Porthcawl.
Aileen said: “Two men were out fishing at the time, and the engine on their boat had failed and the anchors wouldn’t hold. We just had to go out and rescue them from the sand bank and safely back to shore.
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"We were at the limits of the boat’s capability there really but because we knew that they were in trouble and lives were at risk, even though we were at the limits we did launch for that… There’s a bit of an adrenaline rush when you go out there but you’re working as a team so you work out what is the best form of action, which is the best way to go.
“Normally we would have cut across the banks but it was too rough so we had to go round the banks so that was a discussion which took place between all of us because we’re all in the same situation. We’re all in the same boat, so to speak.”
Aileen officially joined the RNLI in Porthcawl as a volunteer in 1994, but had been around the crews since she was 12 years old, soaking in all there is to know about saving lives at sea. Her dad had a boat in the harbour, and over time some of her relatives started to join the RNLI crew, inspiring her to also get on board when she was old enough.
“It took a while to make it into the crew”, Aileen recalled. “But it didn’t happen until I was about 30 so I made it in the end, and now I’m nearly 60 - it’s just gone by in a whiz and I have no plans to leave any time soon."
Up until February this year, Aileen also worked in a nursery, but now that her and her husband have retired she has more time to spend volunteering at the charity and is on call 24/7. She has now also taken on different responsibilities, and is no longer going out with the crew on rescues.
Volunteering in a management role at the charity, it is often up to Aileen to decide whether or not the crews are able to respond to the calls they get about different incidents. She said: “In this role you have to think about whether or not it’s safe to launch the crews out, so it’s a big responsibility really. It’s a difficult decision to make sometimes.”
Although Aileen received recognition for her response to the call out they made to save the fishermen in 2004, there have been a number of other incidents she now looks back on and can’t quite believe they happened. Aileen noted: “There have been many memorable rescues myself and the crew have been part of.
“We’ve had quite a few boats which get caught on the banks that we have to pull off, a man once fell off a boat in the harbour and couldn’t get back on and I was first in the water to support him. Another one was a boat which hit some rocks in Newton. The boat capsized and sank and we had to save a man from the wreckage and pull him onto the boat.”
RNLI crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,900 lives since 1824, and is reliant on their hardworking volunteers to make an impact, and there is now a wider range of people that are part of the charity as well. She said: "We thoroughly enjoy it at Porthcawl RNLI, and love the comradery of the crew, as well as helping out the community. It's something we all really enjoy, volunteering down here. Women are also more than welcome in the RNLI - and it's brilliant."
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