A Co. Monaghan mother has revealed how the heroic actions of her son saved her and her family in Australia.
Joanne Appelbee, from Magheracloone in south Monaghan lives in Perth with her family.
Last Friday while at the beach with her three children was swept out to see along with her daughter Grace and sons, Beau and Austin, on a paddleboard by high winds.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan Show this morning, she explained what happened.
Joanne said: “We were in the shorter part initially, one of the kids went out a little bit further and the wind started to pick up.
“I went out to say, let’s not go out too far, we’ll come back in. The wind started to pick, the waves started to go, and a paddle board flipped. We tied each other, thinking, we’d come back in.
“It was still ok, I didn’t have any fear of anything happen then. It was going to cost me an oar that was lost at sea,” she added.
When the wind picked up, Joanne and her sons, Austin and Beau, tried to pull the family back to the shore.
Austin Appelbee told Northern Sound this morning that the ordeal became tiring, before they lost another oar.
Having people told to go and get help, Austin began to paddle to shore in a kayak. However, progress was slow, and the wind and waves made it impossible for the 13-year-old to go any further.
“After a bit of clinging on to the kayak, I decided to let go of the kayak, and start swimming with my life jacket on,” Austin said.
“I was swimming with my lifejacket on for a while, but I was still 4km out at sea, so I wasn’t actually getting anywhere. So, I had to make the decision to tie the jacket to my leg and start swimming. It kept taking me out, so I untied it and swam to shore as fast as I could,” he added.
Having overcome such a nerve wrecking ordeal, Austin’s legs collapsed as soon as he got back to the shore. However, he managed to run a further 2km to find a phone to get help.
“I could barely sea [the shore] but there were buildings and radio towers that you could see. I could also see land from a longer distance, but it was sticking out into the ocean. I couldn’t really see the land until 2km in.”
The young man admitted that “a couple of times” he felt he wouldn’t make it back to the shore. However, strength and determination brought him, and his family, back to safety.
Joanne Appelbee told The Joe Finnegan Show that letting Austin go was the hardest decision she has ever had to make.
She explained that she couldn’t leave the kids at sea, and she trusted that Austin “had become a man”, and that he was their best chance to get to safety.
Austin’s younger brother said that he nearly broke down with fear after almost five hours at sea.
“Around hour six is started to get dark, that’s when it got really scary. It got colder, wetter, bigger waves. Mam kept on flipping. At hour seven it was completely dark, we saw the planes flying over looking for us,” Beau said.
After eight hours in the water, the family saw the helicopter that had come to rescue them.
There’s no doubt that Joanne couldn’t have kept going without the help of “her rock” Beau, and the little “trooper” Grace.
Doreen Cunningham, the family’s grandmother, safe and sound in Magheracloone also spoke to Joe Finnegan this morning.
She advised the public to take a lesson from what happened to the Appelbee family, telling them to stay away from the open water if they aren’t able for it.
