Mark with his baby boy Noah. Picture: RNLI
July 21, 2025
A volunteer at the Chiswick RNLI lifeboat station has received a commendation from the Metropolitan Police after he saved the life of a woman when he was off duty.
In May of last year crew member Mark Pusey, who also works as a session musician, had been moving boats with friends on the Thames while when he heard an emergency call on the radio.
A woman had been found face down in the water, unconscious and not breathing.
Mark managed to recover her from the water and commenced CPR until she began breathing on her own again.
On Friday 11 July at the American Embassy in London, Mark was given an OCU (Operational Command Unit) Commander’s Commendation for saving a life.
The Commendation is given to recognise individuals for acts of bravery that go above and beyond.
Mark said, ‘I would have been in no position to have helped if it wasn't for the superb training the RNLI has given me. To me it was the RNLI that helped save her.
‘As volunteers we are never really off service and I felt a duty to do what I could to help.’
RNLI area operations manager for the Thames Simon Edwards said, ‘I’d like to take this opportunity to pass on my congratulations to Mark for his well-deserved Commendation.
‘His act last May in saving a person’s life really shows the typical selfless behaviour of all our volunteers and crew members across the RNLI.’
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |