A member of Sligo Bay RNLI Helm was among the five finalists in the inaugural Captain Dara Fitzpatrick Award, hosted by the Irish Paramedicine Education and Research Network (IPERN).
Eithne Davis was nominated for the award by her lifeboat station team and having been selected as a finalist, she attended a special ceremony at the University of Limerick earlier this week, on International Women’s Day.
Frances Griffin of the National Ambulance Service picked up the award which pays tribute to Captain Dara Fitzpatrick’s powerful legacy.
Captain Fitzpatrick died with four colleagues on board the Rescue 116 helicopter while on a rescue mission, off the Mayo coast in 2017.
The awards honoured Dara’s values of compassion and kindness, strength and bravery, leadership and professionalism.
Eithne joined Sligo Bay RNLI at its inception in April 1998 and has been a member of the team since. Her volunteering role with the RNLI spanned her life stages of rearing a young family, through various jobs and roles, to this year completing her Doctorate Studies in Environmental Studies. Over the past 25 years she has carried her RNLI pager and been on call ready to launch to those in need of help at sea.
In that time, she has launched on service 164 times and has been directly involved in the saving of nine lives, while assisting 131 people.
