Dad and daughter volunteer to help save lives

Most of us don't know what it feels like to help save someone's life - but for 16-year-old Hannah it's a normal part of life as a youth volunteer with York Rescue Boat.

"I was around seven when I first started getting involved," she says.

Hannah's father, David, is an operational team manager for the charity, having joined the team in 2015, when it was launched.

The father and daughter duo have been speaking as part of a recruitment campaign for new volunteers.

Hannah says that as well as helping to raise awareness of water safety, she "plays casualty" for rescue crews.

"I will be that missing person who may be in mental distress, who may be injured. I will be that person so the crew get an insight into the dos and don'ts," she explains.

She says she "compartmentalises" to help her process the heavy topics, while she's at school.

"It's just having to put that away, but knowing if push came to shove, if there was an incident where somebody was possibly in distress, I have that knowledge and I can go and help that person."

Her dad says the York Rescue Boat can "literally be the difference between life and death".

The charity was set up in response to a number of deaths in the rivers of York, and aims to keep people safe through education, safety patrols and an on-call search and rescue crew.

David says members of the team sometimes "need time to decompress" after a call-out, but "it's definitely worth it".

The team dynamic helps volunteers to deal with it, Hannah adds.

"This crew is an awful lot like my family - a lot of them have seen me grow up from around the age of six, so being able to spend my days doing this fills me with pride," she says.

Recruitment lead Sally Waddington says: "We get as much out of it as we put in."

She also volunteers as operational crew, alongside her day job in the pharmacy department at York Hospital.

"It's not just the boat, there are so many aspects of the charity that people can get involved with," Sally says.

"You may be good at baking cakes that can help on our stalls," she adds, with roles also available in marketing and on operational foot patrol, working alongside the boat crew.

The charity is planning a day of demonstrations at Queen's Staith in York on Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00 BST.

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