An eight-year-old boy swept out to sea on the west coast of Scotland survived by using a lifesaving lesson he learned at school just weeks earlier. Clayton Garforth was paddling near Westport beach on the Mull of Kintyre, not far from Campbeltown, on Saturday, July 18, when a swell carried him away from shore. He remembered to float and not use up his energy, a technique taught by Tarbert Coastguard Rescue Team (CRT) during a visit to his school, Tarbert Academy, at the start of summer.
Rescue and Recovery
While Clayton kept himself above water, his parents tracked him from the shore. HM Coastguard sent Campbeltown CRT and two Campbeltown RNLI lifeboats, and an HM Coastguard helicopter also flew to support. Before rescuers arrived, a father-and-son pair of surfers helped Clayton out of the sea. The youngster was freezing cold and had swallowed water. He was taken to hospital but was released the next day.
Message for Other Children
Clayton, who wants to be a medic, now has a message for other kids heading to the coast: "Be careful near big waves. Stay safe." His quick thinking recalls other instances in Scotland where instinct helped people survive after getting into difficulty with the elements.
In one case, a couple survived sub-zero temperatures by huddling together overnight in a survival bivvy bag in the Cairngorms. Bob and Cathy Elmer, from Leicestershire, were reported missing in January 2017 after a planned hill walk took longer than expected. They sheltered with their dog in whiteout conditions before being found by mountain rescuers. Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team leader Willie Anderson said using the bivvy bags was a move that probably "saved their lives." Conditions in the area at the time were described as "Arctic."
In another incident, a family stranded in the Highlands was rescued by the "Hogwarts Express" steam train. Jon and Helen Cluett and their four young children were staying at a remote bothy in Lochaber when their canoe was swept away by a swollen river in October 2017. After phoning the police for advice, the police arranged for the steam train used in the Harry Potter films to make an unscheduled stop and pick them up.
A hiker stranded for two days on the Isle of Skye in February 2023 was rescued after an old Facebook post helped narrow the search area. GP John Pike slipped and fell over rocks, suffering a fractured hip, and endured two nights in freezing cold without shelter. A digital footprint uncovered by his nephew gave away his location, and rescuers found him.
Two teenagers trekking in the Scottish Highlands during a major blizzard found themselves "waist deep in snow" and "unable to see." The alarm was raised on January 5 when one of the boys phoned his parents. Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team struggled through the same awful conditions to haul them to safety in a nine-hour rescue. Team members said the boys were "well equipped" and did the right thing in calling them out early.
