Lifeguards along Cardigan Bay have had a busy start to the summer season, with two rescues believed to have saved lives.

On Sunday, 25 June, lifeguard George Buckley was patrolling on Borth beach.

He was on water’s edge when he noticed someone was swimming by the northern sea defence.

The swimmer seemed to be in difficulty, so George grabbed a rescue board and headed straight to assist him.

George paddled out roughly 40m to the swimmer, once he arrived the swimmer was exhausted and was going under water whilst struggling to swim back to shore. The swimmer had been repeatedly hit by large waves and was struggling to swim against the rip currents.

The casualty was helped onto the rescue board by George, who proceeded to paddle him back to shore.

Despite feeling very panicked and tired following the incident, the casualty did not require any additional first aid.

Later in the week, on Thursday 29 June, lifeguards patrolling on Newport Sands beach were soon to finish their shift when they were approached by a kayaker on water’s edge.

The kayaker claimed they had lost their friend who was fishing in a kayak from the beach. The gentleman managed to contact his friends and then proceeded to kayak out towards neighbouring beach Cwm-yr-Eglwys to meet them.

He made it out a fair way out when senior lifeguard Hannah Pusey noticed his kayak had capsized due to the wind and choppy sea conditions.

Lifeguard Emily Cross immediately grabbed a tube and paddled out on a rescue board to assist the kayaker.

Once Emily reached the kayaker, he was exhausted from trying and failing to climb back onto his kayak.

He was also entangled in his fishing line making securing him onto the rescue board rather challenging.

A paddle boarder and sailing yacht stopped nearby to see if Emily required any assistance.

The paddle boarder helped to paddle in the kayak, whilst Emily brought in the casualty on her board.

The casualty was safely returned to shore, however without Emily’s assistance he would not have managed to return the 400m metres back to shore.

A member of the public who was on the sailing yacht described what he witnessed as a “very impressive rescue” and said he had “no doubt the lifeguard saved the man’s life”.