“It’s not spoken about until it’s a death” — Chorley mum petitions for open water dangers to be taught in schools
The mother of a Chorley teenager who drowned while swimming with friends is calling for water safety lessons to be taught in schools.
Rebecca Ramsay, 40, was at a football match when she received a phone call from a police officer to say her son had had an accident in July 2011.
Dylan Ramsay, 13, drowned while swimming in Hill Top Quarry in Whittle-le-Woods. He left behind two brothers and a sister.
Rebecca described learning of his death as an ‘out of body experience’ and now fears there will be more water-related accidents as lockdown eases and warmer weather approaches.
The coastguard reported a surge of call-outs during the summer 2020 lockdown. On its busiest day, it dealt with 340 incidents.
Rebecca doesn’t believe enough is being done to educate children and parents about the dangers of open water swimming.
Ten years on from her son’s death, Rebecca has set up a petition for cold water shock and rip currents to be taught alongside children’s swimming lessons in schools.
In 2011, Rebecca set up the Doing It For Dylan campaign. She has given talks at schools, volunteered with the fire service and worked with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. She was awarded an MBE for her work.
Rebecca, who had a heart attack last month, was still campaigning from her hospital bed.
She said: “When we lost Dylan, we lost a part of us. He was a strong swimmer and very athletic. He was a bright young lad, on track for A*s at school.
“I don’t think parents see open water being a risk until it’s too late. I never saw it as a problem and I wasn’t educated about it until I’d lost Dylan.
“That seems to be the case across the country, you don’t realise unless you go open water swimming yourself or you’re affected by a death — that’s not how it should be.”
Rebecca also highlighted that the ‘taboo’ side of swimming is not often spoken about.
“We talk about the benefits of swimming in open water or people swimming the channel, but the taboo side isn’t spoken about until it’s a death.”
To date, the petition has almost 6,700 signatures. It needs 10,000 for a response from the government and 100,000 to be debated in parliament.
One supporter of the petition is Chris Jordan, who lost his nephew Jack Pullen in July 2016.
Jack, 16, the eldest of 10 children, got into trouble in the River Etherow, Hyde, on the hottest day of the year.
Chris said: “Jack couldn’t swim, so we don’t actually know how he ended up in the water.”
“It makes you open your eyes to how dangerous the world can be. Now it’s my goal to protect every child from drowning.
“Rebecca has put so much work into this petition, and we need it to reach 10,000 signatures at least, so we can get that support from the government.”
Dawn Whittaker, drowning prevention lead for the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said: “Rebecca has been a dedicated supporter of the NFCC’s Be Water Aware campaign since its conception and worked hard with schools and other projects to promote water safety education.”
Dawn explained that the National Water Safety Forum has worked with UK and devolved governments to ensure that children learn how to swim as ‘the rate of non-swimmers leaving primary schools in the UK is too high.’
The education curriculum already includes a requirement for water awareness, but Dawn said it is ‘not consistent’ and the educational materials for teachers ‘have varied.’
She said: “It is for that reason that the NFCC has led a project called StayWise, with contributions from RNLI and other emergency services and charities to ensure materials are available for schools.”
“The number of deaths in water in the UK is still too high and many of those who lose their lives in water never intended to even enter the water.”
