Having gained a postgraduate nursing diploma in 2018, Bryony is sailing across oceans, training sailors in emergency medical care, and coordinating emergency aid. She’s a co-founder of Boats Without Borders, a charity that mobilises the sailing community to rapidly deliver life-saving aid after a natural disaster.
My nursing journey
I did some part-time work in a nursing home during my first degree, and it didn’t take long to feel the calling, it just felt right to go into nursing. I chose the University of Southampton because it has a great reputation for its nursing courses. I also have family locally, so it all fell into place.
After qualifying I went into the NHS, first as a junior sister, then on a high-dependency ward during COVID-19, and later as a divisional retention lead nurse.
I left the NHS to pursue a long-held dream of sailing around the world. My husband and I sold everything and bought a sailboat, and in 2023 we cast off the lines. We’ve sailed the Mediterranean and crossed the Atlantic, and we’re currently in Panama.
Passing on life-saving skills
I’ve always been interested in low-resource and wilderness medicine and gained some additional qualifications in those fields. I wanted to apply what I’d learned to help sailors of smaller vessels, where there’s no mandatory training in first aid or emergency medical care.
During hurricane season I volunteer my time running training sessions for the sailing community, in areas like wound management and prolonged field care. As well as practical skills, it’s about raising awareness.
If someone goes away thinking they need to update their medical kit or do some more courses, that’s fantastic because it will save lives.
Responding to disaster
We were in the Caribbean when Hurricane Beryl hit, and I put out a message asking if any sailors wanted to take aid to Grenada and the other affected islands. I thought a handful of people would say yes. In the end I was coordinating 65 vessels from seven countries, which is a real testament to the amazing cruising sailboat community.
There’s usually a gap of a few days between a hurricane hitting and larger agencies arriving. We were able to get aid there in just over 24 hours, and we got a big thank you from the World Food Programme for passing intelligence to them while they were mobilising.
After that, Boats Without Borders started to take shape, and we’re now getting ready for our official launch.
My Southampton training
My time at Southampton has definitely shaped the path I’ve taken. The lecturers were innovative and passionate, and we were taught so well, with an emphasis on quality of care and professionalism from the start.
I left Southampton knowing exactly the sort of nurse I wanted to be. That’s something you take wherever you go. It could be the NHS, a prison, a school, or in my case the middle of the ocean.
