‘Being there for people when they need help the most’
One incident in particular sticks out for Stephanie George, a team leader in the operations room of HM Coastguard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Holyhead where 999 calls are picked up from people in distress by the coast or at sea.
Stephanie recalls: “There was a little boy on a beach in Wales who had just been recovered from the sea. I was on the phone to a family member as the child was undergoing CPR.
“Then, in the background, I heard him cough and take a breath.”
The successful rescue of that little boy is just one of countless emergencies Stephanie has coordinated during her six years at HM Coastguard. The job involves taking the calls, planning the response, and dispatching rescue units including lifeboats and coastguard rescue teams.
In this week's episode we see her calmly assist in a similar incident, this time involving an infant who’s fallen ill on Barmouth beach in Wales. Coastguard rescue teams, a coastguard helicopter and an ambulance crew are all sent, and the youngster later makes a full recovery after a trip to hospital.
Stephanie says of the documentary: “It was lovely to be able to show off what we do. We are the hidden side of sea and coast rescue and it’s nice for people to see who we are and who’s responding to them when they are in distress. It’s good for the public to know.”
Before joining HM Coastguard, Stephanie worked for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, among other roles.
She said: “None of my jobs have direct links to each other. But there is something that runs through them all, and that’s helping people.
“I have always been an active person. I was drawn by an interest in the sea, rescuing people and job satisfaction. I thought it would be immense – and it is. I was not sure I would be cut out for it, not having a maritime background. But it did not matter.”
Stephanie started out as a maritime operations officer. The next step is usually to become a senior maritime operations officer, but she was able to progress to team leader through HM Coastguard’s flare career acceleration programme.
She remembered her first few months after joining the Coastguard: “The training is quite intense – there's a lot to cover so you can do the job and do it well. But you have a supportive team to help and guide you and develop good practice. It’s about how to be a good coastguard, using the systems and how to respond to incidents.”
Six years on, now as team leader, she oversees a close-knit unit of five at Holyhead MRCC, ensuring colleagues are confident, have the right skills, and can follow the correct lifesaving policies and procedures.
To anyone considering a career with HM Coastguard, Stephanie has this advice: “A desire to help people would be one of the main motivations for the job. It’s about being there for people when they need that help the most. Days can be stressful but you’ve never alone and you’re given the training to be successful.
“No two days are the same and the job does not get long in the tooth. There is always the question: what does today hold?”
Find out more about working in maritime operations.
