Wisbech woman to run London Marathon to support Hunstanton RNLI whose hovercraft crew rescued her three daughters at Brancaster in 2013

A mum whose three daughters owe their lives to a lifeboat station is running the London Marathon for the charity that saves lives at sea.

Twins Daisy and Molly Cole, then aged 12, and their older sister Zoe were left clinging to a marker buoy after they were cut off by the tide at Brancaster in August 2013.

Volunteers from Hunstanton RNLI attended the scene on board the station’s hovercraft, arriving just as the tired trio began losing their grip in the fierce tide.

Daisy, Molly and Zoe were all plucked from the sea and returned safely to shore by the crew.

Now their mother Stacey O’Donnell, from Wisbech, is training to run the London Marathon on Sunday 21 April, to raise funds for the RNLI.

“I’d have lost all three without them,” said NHS healthcare assistant Stacey, 52.

“As a family, we’re forever grateful to the RNLI.

“I owe them more than I could ever put into words for their heroic actions on that day which saved their lives.

“I’m not a runner, but I’m training. And I’m going to finish it whatever, even if I have to walk across the finishing line.”

The family met long-serving volunteer Vic Dade when they visited Hunstanton RNLI over the weekend.

Vic, who joined the station as a tractor driver in 1979, was the hovercraft pilot on the day of the rescue.

The shout that came in from HM Coastguard said a group had been cut off by the tide near the notorious Wreck Sands.

But as the hovercraft took off and Vic opened the throttles, a message came in over the radio to say there were now people in the water – meaning they were in grave danger.

“We knew those girls were in danger and we knew we didn’t have long.”

One crew member leapt into the sea after arriving at the scene, while colleagues hauled the exhausted casualties on board and administered care before the hovercraft returned to shore.

The women who were rescued still remember a day by the sea which could have ended very differently.

“It was very scary, every time I go to the beach I still think back to that moment,” said Daisy, now 23, who works as a teaching assistant and is studying an Open University English Literature degree.

“I was really panicked, I was stressing, I’d got myself into such a state. I thought we were going to die.”

Molly, who now works for a London PR company, added: “Whenever I come back to Norfolk and go to the beach, it’s something I always think about.”

Whenever Stacey laces up her running shoes, she remembers the afternoon when the RNLI gave her back her family.