When you embark on a cruise holiday, the last thing on your mind is to fall ill or to hurt yourself while on board. Fortunately incidents like these are actually quite rare in the cruising world, but it is nevertheless reassuring to know that should something go wrong, there will be help available.

When an unnamed 79-year old woman recently boarded Cunard’s Queen Victoria in Southampton, she and her 85-year-old husband were looking forward to a trouble-free cruise to the Norwegian fjords.

She no doubt never expected her cruise to last but a few hours, but unfortunately that is exactly what happened. The cruise ship had hardly left the port of Southampton before she fell and broke a leg.

Fortunately for her there was a qualified doctor on board the ship. After examining her, he found her too frail to be airlifted to a hospital. Instead it was decided that she should be transferred to a RNLI boat and taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The RNLI responded immediately and sent out a Severn class vessel to meet with the 90,000 ton Queen Victoria in the English Channel. The transfer went without a hitch and the woman is now recuperating in the Brighton hospital. Her husband is at her side.

The incident only briefly delayed the cruise liner. After the injured woman was safely transferred to the RNLI boat, the Queen Victoria continued on her trip to Aalesund, Stavanger, Bergen and Geiranger. The ship will return to Southampton next Sunday.