A Winnipeg woman is being hailed a hero by police for the role she played in helping three teenage girls get back to shore during an incident earlier this week at Delta Beach.

Renata Bandel, 52, was with her sister, niece and nephew at Delta Beach north of Portage la Prairie, Wednesday when a commotion in the water was brought to her attention.

"I was heading out for a swim with my niece... as we were heading out a couple was coming back towards the shore and the woman said to me that she heard someone yelling for help and pointed out something red bobbing around in the deep water," recalls Bandel.

She sent her niece back to shore and took off towards the distressed teens, who, at this point, were separated from each other in the water.

"When I get to the (first) girl she was so relieved she burst out crying and sobbing and I told her to lay on her back and I would swim her back to shore and that she would be okay," she says. "She was very concerned about her other two friends who were out in the water somewhere and I just kept talking to her trying to keep her calm."

Bandel managed to get the first girl to shore, where she was met in shallow water by her sister, who works as a nurse. Bandel says by this time there were quite a few people gathered on shore but she couldn't just stand around so she headed back out for the remaining two teens.

"My sister had pointed (a second girl) out to me and once I could see her I just focused on her and just swam out to her. The same thing happened when I get to her, she was so relieved and she burst out crying and i just told he to lay on her back and I would swim her to shore," says Bandel. "We started swimming and I was talking to her to keep her calm and just focused on the shore and kept swimming. Then I realized there was a boat behind us and that was the police boat."

The pair were brought aboard the police vessel and headed back out to the remaining teen in need of assistance.

"We went to go find the other girl that was missing that was on the raft. She was quite a bit farther north and then the police boat took us to shore where the ambulance was there to meet us and that was pretty much it."

Police say one of the three girls was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Bandel, who considers herself a 'pretty good' swimmer, says she's just happy she was in the right place at the right time.

"Once I saw the girls, all I could think of was, get to the person, get to the person. It was amazing. I'm just so glad and so relieved that the girls are all okay and everything worked out well."

The RCMP stated in a release that it would like to recognize the incredible efforts of Bandel for her assistance in the rescue.