A Norfolk lifeboat was converted into a makeshift ambulance to reach a stricken woman and take her to safety on the coast.

THe woman in her mid-50s was out walking at Titchwell Drain, three-quarters of a mile west of Brancaster Golf Club, when she fell and suffered a broken shoulder and dislocated knee.

Paramedics were called and they treated her on site, giving her pain-killing drugs and gas, but the ambulance was unable to reach her because of the terrain.

As the tide was in, it made it possible to get to the site by sea, so the inshore lifeboat, a rigid inflatable, was called in.

The crew launched at noon on Saturday. To make room for the stretcher on the lifeboat, one of the crew gave up his place and stayed behind.

The woman was then ferried to the beach near the golf club and taken to the waiting ambulance by the paramedics, assisted by the crew and the local coastguard. The woman was taken in the ambulance to hospital.