The afternoon of May 17 started like any other for View Royal resident Rylie Matthews.
She left her house, crossed the street into Thetis Lake Regional Park, and headed to the beach with her paddle board to head out onto the water as she does nearly every day.
Very quickly, however, the afternoon went in a different direction.
”I was just at the boat launch getting everything ready, and I heard a woman screaming for help out in the middle of the lake,” said Matthews. “I didn’t really even think, I just hopped on my board and started paddling out there as fast as I could.”
Matthews said the woman was frantically trying to draw her attention to a man who was underwater and sinking quickly nearby.
“The only thing I could really see was his white T-shirt, and he was sinking very, very fast. I laid down on by board and reached into the water to try and grab him, but the only thing I could grab was his hair. I pulled him out of the water onto my board and he wasn’t breathing – he was turning blue from a lack of oxygen.”
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By that time, more beachgoers had showed up on the water to help bring the pair to shore, where they got to work on reviving them until ambulances arrived to take them to hospital.
Matthews said she later found out both had survived the ordeal and were on the path to recovery. On July 4, her heroics were recognized by the town of View Royal, with Mayor Sid Tobias presenting her with the Mayor’s Award.
Receiving the award was an exciting moment for her and not something she ever expected to experience.
But Tobias said awarding it to her was an easy decision to make.
“She leaped toward the danger and managed to save two people’s lives,” he said. “If that is not the essence of bravery, I’m not sure what is.”
Reflecting on that spring day, Matthews said she can’t help but think her physical fitness as a professional athlete and strength coach played an important role in her ability to save those people, especially since everything happened so fast.
“I honestly wasn’t really thinking. I heard someone screaming for help, and went to help. I didn’t know what was happening, but someone was calling for help, and my first reaction was to go help them,” she said.
“I was actually very calm the entire time it was happening, and I don’t have any lifeguard training or anything like that. It didn’t really hit me emotionally until everything was said and done and they have been taken away in an ambulance.”
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