An elderly woman and her blind dog were rescued after being cut off by the tide in an estuary in Newquay yesterday thanks to a combined effort from an RNLI lifeguard, RNLI lifeboats, Coastguard and police.

The emergency services were alerted to the fact a woman had become cut off by the high tide when walking her dog along the Gannel Estuary in Newquay at around 5:30pm last night. 

Teams from the Coastguard and police searched for the woman and could hear her shouts for help but couldn’t see her position on the river bank due to thick reed beds.

RNLI lifeguard supervisor Lewis Timson, who had just finished his lifeguarding duties for the day, went to the scene with a rescue board. 

Using the board, he was able to paddle down the river until he found the woman and her dog, both very cold and wet. She had been in the water up to her neck.

Lewis was able to move the woman onto the rescue board, with the help of one of the coastguard team, but there was nowhere they could safely get her out of the river.

The D-class Newquay lifeboat was unable to launch in the rough weather, so the volunteer crew took it through the town centre on a trailer in order to reach a slipway into the estuary.

From there, they were able to meet up with Lewis and take the woman and her dog on board the lifeboat. They transferred her back to a slipway where an ambulance was waiting to take her to hospital. 

The entire rescue lasted around two hours.