A woman inspired by watching a dramatic cliff rescue 40 years ago has qualified as a crew member at Teignmouth Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI).

Rachel Palmer joined Teignmouth RNLI as trainee crew 16 months ago. She said ‘it felt brilliant’ to pass and be part of the RNLI. ‘I’m looking forward to playing my part in helping to save lives at sea,’ she added.

Rachel has wanted to join the RNLI since her involvement in the rescue of a man stuck on cliffs when she was a child visiting her grandparents in Shaldon. ‘On our last day of holiday, we went out on our boat to say goodbye to the coastline and our favourite beaches,’ Rachel recalled. ‘We spied someone halfway up the cliff waving a white handkerchief. It was in the days before mobile phones and we didn’t have a radio, so we sped back to Teignmouth to the lifeboat station,’ she said. ‘It was with great excitement that the lifeboat was launched. We watched as the crew tried to get into the rocks to rescue the guy, but it wasn’t possible. The helicopter was called and landed on the flat rocks just under the cliff where the guy was and managed to bring him to safety. That was my first memory of the lifeboats and from that moment I wanted to be a part of the team that rescued the man from the cliffs,’ Rachel added.

Rachel followed the RNLI Operational Competency Framework (OCF) training that takes volunteers from joining to qualifying and is then used for continual training to ensure crew are prepared for the variety of conditions and challenges they may face.

As well as in-house training at Teignmouth Lifeboat Station, Rachel learnt sea survival and first aid at the RNLI training centre in Poole. With countless hours of training under her belt Rachel ‘felt ready to be put to the test’ by the time the final assessment came round.

‘Even though I’m now ‘passed out’ the training doesn’t stop,’ Rachel said. ‘We had a great training session the other week where we had a scenario to respond to with a lot of casualties – it was great to put our skills to the test,’ she added.

Rachel has been guided through her training by existing crew at Teignmouth RNLI and is grateful to everyone who helped ‘by giving up time to schedule extra training exercises to help me progress’.

Lifeboat Operations Manager Andy Lilburn was ‘thrilled’ that Rachel has successfully completed her training to become Teignmouth’s latest qualified volunteer crew member. ‘I am delighted for Rachel she has worked very hard and has shown dedication, commitment and enthusiasm towards saving lives at sea throughout the training process.’

Pete Shillabeer was the volunteer helm onboard Teignmouth’s Atlantic 85 Lifeboat, ‘Claude and Kath’, for Rachel’s final assessment. It was a ‘privilege’ to be part of Rachel’s pass out assessment’, he commented. ‘Rachel is an asset to our volunteer crew’.

Rachel has already been on four operational shouts during her time at Teignmouth RNLI, and commented that they have ‘all been different, meaning I’ve had to utilise the various skills learnt in our training in real life scenarios - my pager is on and I’m ready!’