Lismore floods: great-grandmother reunites with boogie board cops who rescued her

A great-grandmother has had an emotional reunion with two officers who used a boogie board to rescue her from floodwaters in Lismore.

A 93-year-old Lismore woman who was saved from rising floodwaters by two hero cops who put her on a boogie board says the thought of her six children, 18 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren willed her on to survive.

NSW Police senior constables Adam Davis and Ben King, both 49, were reunited with Mary McDonough in an emotional meeting at Lismore Base Hospital on Monday – one week after the daring rescue when record flooding smashed the city.

Ms McDonough was found floating on a mattress inside her South Lismore home – with only a 20cm gap between the ceiling and the waterline – when the two ingenious officers managed to take her out on top of the bright yellow boogie board through a window before placing her into a boat.

Mary McDonough was reunited with senior constables Ben King and Adam Davis from Police Rescue who helped extract the 93-year-old from her South Lismore home on a boogie board. Picture: Toby Zerna

The clean up continues in Lismore after record rains and flood hit the northern NSW town. Picture: Toby Zerna

She said thinking about her family – which includes six children, 18 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren – helped her to fight for life when her home began to go under during the terrifying ordeal.

“A couple of my granddaughter-in-laws are having babies this week and I was going to be there because I had crocheted them quilts,” she said.

“It never entered my head that they would be washed away – and they didn’t”.

Ms McDonough, who held hands with constables Davis and King during the meeting by her hospital bed, told them they had been heroes during the rescue mission.

“Of course they are – you were very heroic,” she said.

Police Rescue senior constables Ben King and Adam Davis after they rescued her from her home in South Lismore. Picture: Toby Zerna

Mary McDonough with senior constables Ben King and Adam Davis. Picture: Toby Zerna

Constable King replied: “That’s a massive compliment for us”.

Ms McDonough lives alone and the water rose too swiftly for her to leave safely but, with only moments to spare, the rescue crew found her when they heard her faint cries for help.

She said she also thought of her late husband, WWII veteran and builder Neville, to get her through it.

Constable King said he was moved upon Ms McDonough speaking about her husband.

“Just hearing the thing about her husband – there was a coffee table that was floating down the hallway, her husband made that and that’s when she saw it and she stood on it for a while … she believes there was something upstairs looking down on her,” he said.

“That was unbelievable, it’s surreal – she’s like our grandmother, you get a bit teary.”

Constable Davis said being reunited with Ms McDonough had made his year.

“She said she slipped off the mattress at one point and went down into the water, she said she believed something was there and pushed her back up – she said ‘not today, Mary, not today’,” he said.

“That’s made my year, it really, really has, Ben and I have talked about it, we really wanted to see her but that has surpassed what we thought.

“It was very moving.”