Abergele Lifesaving in North Wales is run by Robert Jackson and Joanne Martin who are highly experienced Royal Life Saving Society UK Trainer Assessors in beach, pool, watercraft and open water.

Here Joanne tells us more of her classes latest lifesaving achievements –

Our class is run weekly at Abergele Leisure Centre and aims to teach personal survival, water safety, first aid, CPR and personal development skills to teenagers.

This current group of young people aged 13-17 have attended our classes for a substantial period of time. They have all worked extremely hard, gaining skills and knowledge to enable them to pass the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Survive and Save awards.

There are 20 Bronze Medallion Awards and a further three of the more experienced lifesavers also achieving their Silver Medallion.

Bronze Medallion:

Louis Coombes            Nia James
Hannah Fletcher          Casie Jones
Ieuan Griffiths             James Lawson
Eilir Gwyn                   Ffion Lloyd
Anna Humphreys         Emma Lovery
Ffiona James               Chloe Merrison
Nidhi Ramanand          Nitya Ramanand
Kyle Ramsay               Carwyn Roberts
Abigail Roberts            Andrew Walker
Owain Williams            Ceri Williams

Silver Medallion:

Sara James
Rebecca Ryder
Sam Farrington

In order to successfully complete these awards each person has had to achieve a ‘core’ award and a ‘life support’ award as pre-requisites for the Medallion.

The ‘core’ award includes gaining knowledge regarding such things as rip-tides, winds, beach configuration and inland water safety.

The ‘life support’ award consists of knowing how to perform CPR, and also being able to treat medical conditions such as hypothermia, shock, bleeding and heart attack.

Hopefully these awards will be a foundation for a future either in Leisure or a similar public service career for these young people.

Recently an emergency at home where her two-year-old younger brother was extremely unwell with infantile convulsions was dealt with in an extremely mature and responsible way by RLSS UK member, 15-year-old Abigail Roberts.

Abigail’s mum, Hayley, said she was panicking and her boy was jerking and frothing at the mouth. Abigail stepped in reassured her and dealt with the situation by cooling her young brother down and putting him the recovery position so she could monitor him until the ambulance arrived. Abigail’s mum added: “I am so grateful for all Abigail has learnt at Lifesaving and was very impressed by how calm and in control she was.”

A story that makes it all worthwhile and highlights the importance of everyone learning basic lifesaving skills!