Stranded couple call Boots for 999 rescue
A HOLIDAY couple who found themselves cut off by rising tides were desperate for the emergency services – but it was Boots the chemist that came to the rescue.
Italian tourists Oberdan Cosimi and his wife Patrizia were stranded on rocks during a walk along the coast in Lynton,
Somerset.
Not knowing the British emergency number they frantically searched their pockets. The only UK phone number they could find was printed on a receipt from a Boots they had visited a few days before.
Oberdan phoned the shop in Minehead and spoke to dispenser Pat Askwith, 57.
She immediately dialled 999 and eventually the couple, with their pet spaniel Nino, were airlifted to safety by an RAF Sea King helicopter.
After their rescue the couple, both 43, went back to Boots to thank Pat for her help.
Oberdan, a manager for a landscape gardening company in Pisa, said they were trapped on the rocks for about an hour.
We called Boots and the very kind lady thought it was initially a joke
They had set off on a coastal walk but after half an hour it became “difficult because the cliffs are dangerous and rocky”.
He added: “We tried to go back but the tide arrived so we could not move. My wife began screaming and crying, she was very frightened.
“But I suddenly had an idea and asked my wife for her receipt from Boots, where we had been a few days earlier for tooth medicine.
"We called Boots and the very kind lady thought it was initially a joke, but I said, ‘This is not funny, my wife is screaming that she wants a divorce’.
“My wife was very scared for us and Nino because of the tide and the weather. It was very special to meet the person who helped us, she was a lovely lady.”
Pat, who said she was “delighted” to help, pointed out that it was lucky the store was open an hour later than usual for the Jubilee bank holiday.
“We were open until five, and I received the call at about 4.30pm,” she added.
“They kept saying ‘SOS’, telling me they were stuck on rocks and the tide was coming up. I wasn’t sure if it was a hoax but I realised they really were in trouble.”
