Student saves parents and girlfriend from drowning after boat capsizes on Majorca holiday... weeks after training as lifeguard
- Ashley Matthews, 20, from Cambridgeshire, hired a motorboat with family
- The weather took a turn for the worse and water began to fill the boat
- Ashley trained with Royal Life Saving Society three weeks before accident
- He dived below the waves to rescue his father who was trapped under boat
Just three weeks after training with the Royal Life Saving Society UK, Ashley Matthews put his training into practice, dramatically saving the lives of his family and girlfriend in Spain.
The student, 20, from Over in Cambridgeshire, hired a motorboat with his parents and girlfriend in Puerto Pollensa, in northern Majorca, to reach a secluded bay only accessible by water.
As they travelled further away from the shore, the weather took a turn for the worse, the sea became choppy and water began to fill the boat.
Ashley Matthews, with his girlfriend Helen Sambrook: The student acted fast when his family's boat capsized
His parents Russ, 55, and Jane, 53, and girlfriend Helen Sambrook, 22, also a student, were unable to reach their life jackets because the wind was so strong it held them at the rear of the boat.
Ashley edged his way to the front of the boat to get the life jackets - almost falling into the water as he went - and found there were only three on board.
Handing them to the others, he braced himself for the boat to capsize in the waves crashing around them.
The boat overturned and Ashley's father, Russ, a manager at a freight company, became trapped underneath.
Life saver: Ashley, pictured right, with Helen Sambrook said he thought he and his family got off lightly
Ashley quickly swam below the waves and pulled him free and all four clung to the overturned hull which was drifting around half a mile off shore.
The family was rescued when a passing yacht spotted them and hauled them on board.
Ashley, a PE student at Leeds Beckett University, had recently passed a lifeguarding course, one of many courses offered by the Royal Life Saving Society UK.
He said: 'I feel that we got off lightly. It could have been a lot worse. I think it was down to the fact that training allowed me to act.
'The beach seemed like an eternity away. We were out way too far and could only hope for a miracle.'
Holiday hell: Ashley's family were rescued when a passing yacht spotted them and hauled them on board
He added: 'I never dreamed that I'd need the skills I learned on the lifeguard course so quickly and that it would help my own family. It was quite a shock afterwards.'
His mother, Jane, said: 'I was really panicking, I dread to think what would have happened if Ashley wasn't there. I am so proud of my son, he is amazing.
'It was very lucky he'd done the course just before we went, either way we would have got on that boat, it was just by chance he knew what to do and selflessly gave us the life jackets.
'Only when we got on the yacht did we realise Ashley had badly cut his knee and it was pouring with blood - he didn't make a fuss at all.'
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