Retired Newcastle RNLI Launch Authority says thanks for lifesaving intervention

Friday 30 January 2026

Retired Newcastle RNLI volunteer Jonny Whyte says he is indebted to his local lifeboat team who came to his aid following a serious accident at his home 18 months ago.

Shane Rice, Jo and Jonny Whyte, Dave Bowden and Trez Dennison pictured with the all-weather lifeboat in the background. Photo Credit: RNLI/Newcastle

On the 20 July, 2024, Jonny who had recently retired as a Launch Authority at the station, was at home and walking up the stairs with two pint glasses of water in his hands when he missed a step at the top and took a significant fall back.

‘That is the last I remember until I woke at the bottom,’ Jonny explains. ‘I knew I was paralysed and shouted to my wife Jo who immediately phoned the ambulance. The ambulance service was busy at the time and even though I was a priority, Jo was told it could be four hours before an ambulance would arrive.’

With the glass having cut a main vein in Jonny’s leg, he was bleeding heavily. He had also sustained injuries to his head. With time of the essence, Jo reached for Jonny’s phone and called Shane Rice, the then mechanic with Newcastle RNLI who was also training to be an emergency medical technician.

‘It was quick thinking on Jo’s part,’ Jonny continues. ‘She rang and said, Shane, I need help, and he was here within minutes. On arrival, realising the seriousness of my injuries, Shane phoned fellow lifeboat crew member Trez Dennison, who is also a specialist staff nurse in the Royal Victoria Hospital. She arrived and between the two of them, they kept me alive until the ambulance came.

‘There is no doubt that the two of them saved my life. Even as the ambulance was about to drive off, the paramedics were unsure if I was going to make it. It was all systems go when I got to hospital, I was later moved to ICU, and I underwent spinal surgery the following day.’

Jonny who is paralysed from the chest down, spent the following five months in hospital.

‘During that time, Trez visited and made enquiries about what type of wheelchair I would be using when I returned home. Little did I know, the whole volunteer team at Newcastle were working to ensure my house would be fitted out with a ramp. It was like something from DIY SOS. The volunteers, some of whom are builders, carpenters, metal steel specialists, etc, all came together and in one full day, essentially future proofed my home and wouldn’t take a penny for any of it.’

So appreciative of the lifesaving efforts of Shane and Trez, Jonny when still in hospital wrote a letter to Dave Bowden who at the time was Newcastle RNLI’s Lifeboat Operation Manager, saying he had no doubt that his life had been saved by their timely intervention and actions.

Dave in turn put in motion an application that would later see it resolved unanimously that both Shane and Trez be awarded the Royal Humane Society award for assisting in saving a man’s life. They also received formal recognition from the RNLI’s medical director for their lifesaving efforts.