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A family from Western Australia is counting their blessings after a teenage boy heroically saved his mother and younger siblings by swimming for hours to get help when they were swept away by the sea.
Austin Appelbee, in a remarkable display of courage, swam approximately 4 kilometers to the shore to alert authorities after he, his mother Joanne Appelbee, 47, brother Beau, 12, and sister Grace, eight, found themselves in perilous conditions this past Friday, according to police reports.
Initially, Austin attempted the journey on an inflatable kayak, which began to fill with water, prompting him to abandon it. Realizing his life jacket was hindering his progress, he removed it, relying solely on his swimming skills.
Throughout his four-hour ordeal battling the rough sea, Austin focused on maintaining a positive mindset, determined to reach safety.
“The waves were enormous, and I had no life jacket,” Austin recounted on Tuesday. “I just kept telling myself, ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.'”
“The waves are massive and I have no life jacket on … I just kept thinking ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming’,” Austin said on Tuesday.
“And then I finally I made it to shore and I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed.”
The family, from Perth, were on holiday and were using kayaks and paddle boards hired from their hotel around noon when rough ocean and wind conditions started dragging them out to sea.
A search helicopter found the mother and two children wearing life jackets and clinging to a paddleboard at 8.30pm local time, police said. They had drifted 14km from Quindalup.
“The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised highly enough — his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings,” police inspector James Bradley said.
‘One of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make’
Joanne Appelbee told reporters she sent her oldest child for help because she couldn’t leave the three children.
“One of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make was to say to Austin: ‘Try and get to shore and get some help. This could get really serious really quickly’,” she told the ABC.
She said she was confident he would reach shore, but was filled with doubt as the sun set and help had not arrived.
“We kept positive, we were singing and we were joking and … we were treating it as a bit of a game until the sun started to go down, and that’s when it was getting very choppy. Very big waves,” she said.
The three were all shivering and Beau had lost sensation in his legs because of the cold by the time they were rescued, she said.
“I have three babies. All three made it. That was all that mattered,” she said.
All four family members were medically assessed, but none required hospital admission.
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