Dear Editor

I wonder if you can pass on my good wishes to those three lifeguards who saved the lives of the 40 children and teachers on the beach with the disappearing sandbank. The Summer holidays would have been overshadowed by this incident.

Years ago we used to have public information interludes on television. Rip currents, moving sandbank s, tides etc should be shown nationally as it is not only people who live on the coast who go to the beach. When there was a recent death I said to my wife: ‘Doesn’t everybody know how to deal with rip currents?’ and then realised that I knew about it from the Lifeboat.

Where would the average beach goer and sailor
be without the RNLI?

Regards,

Clive Groves
Offshore Member

Dear Editor

I’ve just heard about Steve McFadden and your Swim a mile events. [See page 12.]

You might be interested to know that I was a council lifeguard on Portrush beaches in Northern Ireland from 1965 and was billed in the press at the time as the first female lifeguard. My name then was Una Henderson. It was a great Summer job for a schoolgirl.

The Portrush lifeboat was nearby and I developed huge admiration for the RNLI as a consequence. I’m now inspired to send off for details of the Swim a mile event. All good wishes to everyone at the RNLI.

Una Mulrenan

Dear Editor

I’m a lifeguard. Until last Winter, if asked had I ever given ‘mouth to mouth’ or CPR for real, my answer was always no. My girlfriend Jess and I were surfing in Chile. One morning we drove with three Argentineans to find waves. It was 5.30am when we saw sparks, heard a screech, and then silence.

We found a broken fence, an upturned car and a man lying still. It was grotesque. The man was drowning in his blood and showed no signs of life. I cleared his airway and after a few seconds he began to breathe on his own, so I put him in the recovery position. Jess took control of him, monitoring, observing and reporting to me.

There were five people: the man, his wife, her brother, another guy, and the driver. He had been partying all night, fell asleep at the wheel, missed a turn, clipped an oncoming car and drove off the side of the road, landing upside down in the ditch. He had been pulled out by the Argentineans, was talking to them and seemed healthy, until in the middle of a sentence he fell to the floor and stopped breathing.

This is what I’d been trained for, and I went through the procedures. Over the next 45 minutes I proceeded with CPR without any medical gear, covered from head to toe in sick, blood and booze. It took the emergency services just over an hour to arrive and I handed over responsibility.

From that day, all involved made promises to themselves whether it be to learn first aid, not to touch alcohol and drive, or to lifeguard for another few seasons. It opened up something in me that I cannot close and I like that. To my previous senior lifeguards, supervisors, managers and trainers: thank you from my heart for everything you have taught me – I was able to save two lives.

Matt Smith
Penwith, Cornwall