This is Daniel Kinsella, a 16-year-old Liverpudlian who recently rescued three separate groups of paddleboarders in the family’s dinghy.
North Wales Live in the UK suggested it may have felt to young Daniel like he was settling up for a bill he owed—his own life having been saved twice as a victim of childhood cancer.
His love of the sea—the passion that saw him get certified as a junior yacht pilot—was developed through repeated trips to the sea on the Welsh island of Anglesey; a way to try and salvage some part of his childhood from being remembered solely by trips to chemotherapy appointments.
The story started at Christmas in 2012, when at just four years old, bruising, yellowed skin, and rashes saw Daniel rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with leukemia. A long spell of chemo awaited Daniel, and as part of the treatment plan, the hospital doctors at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital recommended a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter).
Daniel’s parents Mike and Michelle were hesitant. Picturing their family’s tradition of weekend summertime trips to go camping next to Trearddur Bay on the Isle of Anglesey, they couldn’t bear to imagine Daniel staying dry because of the PICC while his friends and cousins splashed around in the water.
Instead, they insisted on getting a Portacath—a small plastic chamber surgically implanted under the skin that allows its users to go swimming.
“Knowing what Daniel was facing, we wanted him to continue to have relative normality,” said Michelle. “He loves going there and he loves the water, and we didn’t want him sitting on the sidelines as all his friends had fun. We knew life was going to be hard enough for him anyway without him being deprived of his friends and the sea.”
Daniel went on to receive three years of chemo at Alder Hey, and it seemed to be going well. He would eventually be declared cancer-free in 2016, but not before suffering a life-threatening case of pneumonia during a springtime trip to Anglesey. He was rushed to the hospital in Bangor, Wales, and put on oxygen, to be released after a week’s long stay with scarred lungs.
Though the trip to Anglesey may have put Daniel in the grave, his parents’ perseverance in upholding the family tradition planted roots of interests and character that are now sprouting as their boy gradually becomes a man.
His love of the sea developed into a passion for tackling plastic pollution, and the local paper of his home city, the Liverpool Echo, reported that just after cancer remission at age 8, he had already become a vocal proponent of curbside recycling in his community.
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At Anglesey, Michelle’s stepdad Paddy, an accomplished yachtsman and angler, taught his stepgrandson all he knew about tides, charts, and navigation. Along with passing all his SATs despite missing two years of school due to his chemotherapy, he mastered the Royal Yachting Association basics for sailing and powerboats—allowing him to drive his family’s rigid inflatable dinghy.
“Mike and I have tried to give Daniel the best, because he had so much of his childhood taken away from him,” Michelle said. “We’ve tried really hard to compensate, I suppose.”
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Returning to present day, on a recent trip to Anglesey Island, Daniel was piloting the dinghy with some family and friends aboard when he picked up a distress call on Channel 16—the radiofrequency for all maritime emergencies in the UK. A family of paddleboarders had been stuck on some rocks after a strong near-shore wind carried them much farther out than they ever intended to go.
Complying with child-adult passenger ratios (part of the Royal Yachting Association rules) he turned back to drop off his friends before returning to rescue the family, who were just one of three groups of paddleboarders who Daniel rescued that day; all victims of the near-shore wind.
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“I was super proud of him for going to people’s aid and the way in which he navigates our boat,” said Michelle. “It was a nice sunny day but that can be deceptive. The wind can blow you out and you can’t get back. It might be warm on the beach but the water is freezing.”
His love of the sea is matched only by his fascination for the skies, and the Daily Post reports that his dream is to join the RAF.
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