I was minutes from dying - then I heard the lifeboat crewman's voice

Hypothermic and clinging to her paddleboard after being swept out to sea, mother-of-four Mandy Galloway felt her life slipping away.

She became colder and colder and lost the feeling in her legs as she drifted off the Fife coast.

But just as she gave up hope of help arriving, she heard the friendly voice of a lifeboat crew member.

Mandy has now been reunited with the lifeboat crew who rescued her in July 2023 - and admitted she has not returned to the water since.

"Obviously it's never left me," the 45-year-old from Methil told BBC Scotland News.

"That was quite a horrific, traumatic experience, because I was only a couple of minutes from dying, so the emotions are still quite raw even though it was a wee while ago."

Mandy had been at Kingsbarns Beach with her partner on a "lovely" summer day when they decided to go paddleboarding.

"There was no intention of going anywhere past a few metres, but the wind picked up quite quickly," she said.

Her partner managed to paddle to shore to raise the alarm but Mandy found herself drifting "further and further out".

She said: "I was really upset and obviously scared.

"I was on my knees on the paddle board, holding on to the side."

But she was hopeful that she would be rescued soon.

"I knew Anstruther was just around the corner so I was waiting on a boat coming round the corner," she said.

"But I was going out further and further and my legs started to go numb because I was on my knees.

"So I tried to get on to my bum, but when I did the wave caught me and tipped me."

Mandy said she began to panic when she was under the water, but then started to experience a "surreal calm."

She said: "I was talking to my auntie and uncle, who are no longer here, and I think that's what kept my brain going.

"I was talking to them the whole time, making promises that I would be better with my children, we would make lots of memories, if they could just keep me here."

As she got colder, Mandy said she thought that no one was coming to rescue her.

"The waves were getting higher and higher," she said. "I couldn't hear anything but the water, my grip was going.

"At that point, I just said 'well, if you're going to let me die here, please let me pass out before I go under'."

Then Mandy heard a man's voice saying: "We are so glad to see you."

The voice belonged to Scott Brown, a crew member on the D-class inshore lifeboat that had been searching for Mandy after receiving multiple 999 calls.

Scott said: "I think I said 'I'm so glad to see you' and she repeated that back to me.

"But we realised straight away she was in a really, really bad way."

Mandy had been spotted by Scott's crew mate Louis McNaught.