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Kelowna  

Swept away in Mexico

UPDATE: 8:50 a.m.

Shannon Christensen with Kelowna's Mamas for Mamas is thanking her lucky stars this morning after spending close to an hour (she says in a Facebook post that it felt like an eternity) alone in the dark at sea in Mexico.

Vacationers and hotel staff from four resorts in the area frantically searched for her after she was swept away by a rogue wave.

The same force that grabbed her and pulled her out to sea, eventually pushed her back to shore, and she managed to get back on solid ground.

Castanet has reached out to Shannon, and we will have more on this life-affirming story as details become available.


ORIGINAL: 7:59 a.m.

A Kelowna woman is lucky to be alive after a harrowing experience in Mexico, near Ixtapa.

Shannon Christensen with Mamas for Mamas in Kelowna says she went for a moonlight walk on the beach with her husband.

Christensen says as she walked out ankle deep into the surf, she was swept away by a giant wave.

A riptide got a hold of her and dragged her out to sea.

She was completely disoriented and couldn't touch bottom when she surfaced. Her husband, who just turned away from her for a moment, had no idea where she went.

Christensen was alone and floating for about an hour before she finally felt sand under her feet.

She washed up on shore about a kilometre from the resort.

Her husband had been frantically looking for her, and they embraced on the sand once he found her, she says.

Christensen says she has a new appreciation for life and says she feels "blessed and grateful to be alive, and in a weird way this experience has made things very real ... it's a very powerful motivator."



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