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More on KentOnline
A heroic 17-year-old lifeguard has rescued three children from the sea off the Kent coast in the same day.
In one of the rescues, Mowgli Palmer, who is based in Ramsgate, had to act so fast he jumped into the sea fully clothed after spotting a young boy disappearing beneath the water about 50m offshore.
The drama began on Saturday afternoon, when lifeguards on the beach spotted two swimmers - a boy and a girl both aged 15 - being dragged around the back of the East Pier after being cut off by the tide.
Mowgli, who is in his first full year as an RNLI lifeguard, immediately grabbed two rescue tubes, jumped on his rescue board and paddled out to the teenagers, and helped bring them to shallow water. He kept them safe while he waited for help from the Ramsgate RNLI inshore lifeboat.
The children were then picked up by the lifeboat crew and taken back to the main beach where health checks were carried out, and they were reunited with their parents.
Later the same afternoon, Mowgli was patrolling the beach when he spotted a boy and his uncle throwing a ball to another boy, who was swimming out to retrieve it from the sea.
The second boy was a weak swimmer, and Mowgli watched as his head suddenly began disappearing under the water.
Despite being fully clothed, complete with a jumper and bum bag, Mowgli didn’t hesitate to dive into the water.
He swam out 50m to rescue the boy and bring him safely back to shore. Once there, senior lifeguard Gabe Drew administered first aid and the 14-year-old was handed over to his parents.
Lifeguard supervisor Ellie Hopper said Mowgli had acted with real courage during both rescues.
"He is one of our youngest lifeguards and to save three lives in a day is amazing," she said. "Our lifeguards receive world-class training in lifesaving but to do what he did takes real courage.
"His observation skills in spotting the swimmers in difficulty were first class and then to act so quickly was exceptional. He is very good on a rescue board. Going round the back of the pier is quite a paddle, maybe 300m – and then he went on to carry out another rescue that same afternoon."
It was a busy weekend for RNLI lifeguards on the Kent coast.
That same afternoon at Viking Bay, RNLI lifeguard Alex Wilmshurst waded into the water to assist a man in his early 30s who had jumped off a paddleboard and suffered a serious ankle injury.
The man was around 10m from the shore but in considerable pain. Alex was able to bring him and his board to the shoreline where he and other lifeguards waited with him, while a first responder and an ambulance arrived.
On Sunday, lifeguards at Botany Bay were called into action at about 5pm after a middle-aged man dislocated his shoulder while playing with his children on the beach.
The man, from London, was in a lot of pain and senior lifeguard Ailsa MacRae made him comfortable and administered first aid, with help from lifeguard Josh Crottie, before helping him get up the steep slope from the beach to an ambulance.
