When 64-year-old Mandy “Ocean” Dean plunged into the icy, heaving waters of Sardinia Bay to save two drowning men, she had no idea the rescue would eventually earn her a place in lifesaving history.
Now the lifesaving legend from Gqeberha has become the oldest recipient of the prestigious Mountbatten Medal in its 75-year history, as well as the first South African woman to receive the international honour.
The award was for her 2025 rescue of a George man and his nephew, who were drowning at Sardinia Bay.
Dean, who stripped down to her underwear and plunged into the waves in July last year, despite the big swell and dangerous, icy conditions, said she was pleasantly surprised to have won the Mountbatten Medal.
Unable to swim the desperate pair in against the current, she managed to get them onto exposed rocks half a kilometre out and then, lacerated and bleeding, to swim back to shore again to get help.
Lifesaving SA Bravery Awards convener Stanford Slabbert, who submitted Dean’s name for consideration for the Mountbatten Medal, said on Tuesday he was delighted.
“It highlights the strength of South African lifesaving and proves once again that our surf lifesavers are among the best in the world.”
He said he had received the news in an email from the UK-based Royal Lifesaving Society, which co-ordinated the award.
“I immediately tried to phone Mandy, and when I couldn’t get hold of her, I sent her a WhatsApp message referring her to the email I had forwarded to her.”
He said Dean’s achievement was momentous. “By winning the Mountbatten Medal for 2025, Mandy becomes the oldest recipient on record, and the first female South African lifesaver to win the accolade.
“She is only the 10th female to win the accolade in the 75 years of the award.”
He said in terms of the Mountbatten Medal criteria, the rescue could have happened anywhere in the world, but the rescuer had to be a citizen from a Commonwealth country and have some background in lifesaving.
“The official citation and silver medallion will be arriving soon, and we will organise an appropriate time and place to present it to Mandy,” he added.
In April, Dean was awarded Lifesaving SA’s premier silver medallion for the same rescue, and the organisation at this point also submitted her name for the coveted Mountbatten Medal.
After the inauguration of the Mountbatten Medal in 1951, it was awarded in 1955 to a pair of South Africans.
Thereafter, for nearly seven decades, no further South Africans featured.
However, in the past eight years, South Africans have dominated the honours list, winning six medallions, including the latest one going to Dean.
The international medal was instituted by the Royal Lifesaving Society’s then-grand president, the Earl of Mountbatten of Burma, who was a British statesman, naval officer and member of the British royal family.
Dean, who is a former Springbok triathlete and today a renowned swim coach, said on Tuesday she had been “happily shocked” by the news because, while she knew her name had been submitted, she had never expected to win.
She said she felt strongly that swimming should be made a life skill.
“It should be compulsory for every school to teach it, and for every kid to take it during the summer months.
“Related to that, we need the government to help schools put in swimming pools or at least resurrect our municipal pool system.
“Currently, there are not enough places for people from poor communities to learn how to swim,” she said.
“Consequently, many people have no idea about water, beaches or sea and that’s why the incidence of drowning is so high in this country.”
Dean feels strongly about the National Sea Rescue Institute pink buoy system, where a bright pink buoy is strategically placed attached to a pole at beaches, rivers and dams around the country.
The idea is that if a bystander witnesses a drowning under way, they can grab the buoy and toss it out to the victim or swim it out, having already phoned for support, using the contact number on the pole.
Dean said pink buoys were deployed around the country and had already been used to great effect.
“We really need to get them in place in Nelson Mandela Bay.” — The Herald
