Lyme Regis RNLI water safety volunteers promote World Drowning Prevention Day

The Lyme Regis team will be available to give lifesaving advice for those on or around the water. This year’s WDPD theme is ‘Find Your Float’ which focuses on encouraging people to learn how to float, recognising that we all float differently, and giving people the confidence to deal with difficult situations in the water.

Float to Live Message:

• Tilt your head back, submerging your ears

• Relax, and control your breathing

• Move your hands and legs, to help you afloat

• Your legs may sink – that’s OK, everyone floats differently

• Practise floating – at a supervised location like a swimming pool

Lyme Regis volunteer Water Safety Officer Steve Shaw said: ‘Around 300,000 people drown worldwide every year – around one person every 2 minutes. On average 138 people die by accident in UK and Irish coastal waters each year. This is why the Float to Live message is so important for everyone, young and old, to understand. And this is why we will be spreading the message in Seaton on 25 July and during Lyme Regis Lifeboat Week between 26 July and 1 August.’

World Drowning Prevention Day is supported by the Town Councils of Seaton and Lyme Regis. To recognise the day, blue lights will illuminate Seaton Tourist Information Centre together with Lister and Langmoor Gardens in Lyme Regis.

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. Photos 1-5 RNLI Float to Live Message. Credit:RNLI

1. Photo 6. Seaton TIC lit up for World Drowning Prevention Day. Credit: RNLI/Steve Shaw

RNLI media contacts

For more information, please contact Nick Marks, volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer at Lyme Regis Lifeboat Station on 07568 187582 or [email protected]. or Emma Haines, Regional Communications Manager, on 07786 668847 or [email protected], or contact the RNLI Press Office on 01202 336789.