Unsung
Alexis James
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In Deep: A Day in the Life of a Volunteer Lifeguard
This is Unsung. Introducing the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss. In the UK alone, over four million people participated in some form of swimming in 2023. And while the pandemic prompted a flurry of pool closures that continue today, many defied this worrying trend by heading for a dip outdoors in lakes, rivers, lochs, and seas. Over half a million of us took a dip in open water last year. And yet, in a twisted irony, Covid-19 also triggered a shortage of qualified lifeguards to keep us safe. And so, in this episode of Unsung, we meet some of the country’s best lifeguards to discover why they do what they do, and to see if we can’t persuade a few more to follow their lead… Many thanks Fay Tennet and her lifeguarding team at the Great North Swim for having me tag along as they went about their work with such diligence and expertise. My thanks also to the Royal Lifesaving Society for their help and support, and of course to the organisers at the Great North Swim for letting me come along. Head to the links below to find out more about taking part in the Great North Swim or how to sign up as a volunteer lifeguard. Quotes: "I'm a sort of serial volunteer, so I just keep saying yes to stuff. It's great. And it does bring a huge amount of experience of things that you never even think about. For me, my personal drive is that I want to help people love what I love." "Everyone's got a different story to what brought them to the water's edge. But all those stories have got a common thread, which is that We're all just human and we're all just trying to be better people. So that's why I came here today, just to kind of affirm that. And it's nice to give back." "I'd always encourage people to volunteer; you get a lot out of it." "Your days can be really long and really boring and wet and windy, and then within a millisecond something happens, and you've got to be on it. One minute you might be chatting to swimmers and saying, 'Oh, have a nice swim, isn't it lovely?' And the next minute you're being alerted to a medical emergency. And you are part of a team that is responding to basically save somebody's life. It really brings it home to the reason you're there." "Everything in life is quite heavy for a lot of people. Being in the outdoors is risky. But it's not risky if you do it in the right way. And this event is the right way to do it. You know, and that's why we're here today." Explore more Bored Olympic lifeguard at Rio 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2016/live-updates/rio-games/scores-and-latest-news/olympic-swimming-lifeguards-are-real-and-theyre-spectacularly-bored/ Great North Swim: Sign up https://www.greatswim.org/great-north-swim RLSS water safety event volunteer https://www.rlss.org.uk/event-water-safety-volunteer RLSS: the Water Safety Code https://www.rlss.org.uk/the-water-safety-code Swim England: Volunteering https://www.swimming.org/careers/volunteering/ STA: How to become a swimming teacher a...
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