I lost my daughter in a tragic accident, changes must be made to make sure no more kids die

Getty Images

IN the last five years 15 public swimming pools have shut their doors in Scotland.

And drowning prevention experts fear that more people will have accidents in the water, as they are not equipped with the opportunity to learn life-saving skills.

Recently, the GMB union said the closures are leaving young people at risk.
Meanwhile, Scottish Swimming has launched the Save Our Pools campaign and recently spoke in parliament to plead with ministers to reverse the trend.

Joining the organisation was Kirsty Doig, from charity The Darcey Sunshine Foundation, which she founded after losing her three-year-old daughter in a tragic pool accident.

Today she speaks out about why it’s vital that pools not only remain open but that every child in the country has the chance to learn to swim.

THE Darcey Sunshine Foundation was set up in 2021 following the heartbreaking loss of our little girl, Darcey, to drowning in a swimming pool accident whilst living out in South Africa.

We’d moved there for a change in lifestyle, to give our kids a more outdoor, active life. Knowing that pools and open bodies of water were everywhere there, we made swimming lessons a top priority.

But we learned the hardest way possible that drowning can happen to anyone, often when someone isn’t necessarily expected to be in the water, and when attention slips for just a moment.

After losing Darcey, we made it our mission to prevent this from happening to other families, by raising awareness of the simple ways in which drowning can be prevented and teaching children facing financial hardship survival swim skills.

In Scotland we would love, as a charity, to one day work ourselves out of existence.

A key part of what we do is to promote access to basic swim skills and provide a good understanding of how children can keep themselves and others safe around water.

We believe the most effective and equitable way to achieve that is by integrating water safety and swimming lessons into the school curriculum. Every child, regardless of background or income, should be taught these essential skills, just as they learn maths or reading.

We’re an island nation surrounded by huge bodies of water, both from our stunning coastline and inland waterways, to our famous lochs, yet according to Scottish Swimming, as many as 40 per cent of children are leaving primary school unable to swim. It is vital that our young people understand how to keep safe in the environment that surrounds them.

Recently, we spoke in Parliament alongside Scottish Swimming for its Save Our Pools campaign.

The ministers with whom we spoke were shocked at the extent to which pools are closing, and the lack of basic swim skills within our primary school children. We had gone with three main asks from government, which were to:

Protect our pools as Community Assets by introducing a Statutory Consultation Process for every threatened public pool closure, similar to what is already in place for the closure of sports pitches

Roll out school swimming to every local authority in Scotland to give fair and equal opportunities to learn to swim for every child

To set up a Task Force with the Scottish Government, Sport Scotland, Scottish Swimming, and Cosla to assess what is required in terms of support and investment to avoid pool closures

We understand that a lot of our pools in Scotland have ageing infrastructure that is expensive to maintain, but there needs to be statutory consultation with all relevant bodies before pools are closed.

Swimming pools are more than just places to learn to swim. They are community hubs. They support drowning prevention, yes – but also mental health, physical fitness, and social connection across all generations.

And if we close down these incredible community hubs and lose our pools, then the danger is clear, we risk the health, wellbeing, and safety of future generations.

For so long we’ve taken for granted that most communities have a swimming pool. Growing up, swimming was always your rainy day activity.

You’d be in the swimming pool and you’d be learning vital skills without even realising it. Now there’s many communities that don’t have local access to a swimming pool. For those that do, the cost has now become a barrier for many families.

As a drowning prevention charity, it’s a great cause of concern for us. Without accessible, safe spaces to learn these skills, we are losing our ability to protect children (and adults) from entirely preventable tragedies.

We had a great response in parliament when we discussed the #saveourpools petition but it has been worryingly quiet since, with more pools continuing to close.

It may seem like a cost-saving decision now, but closing a pool sets us up for long-term damage: a generation of non-swimmers, rising inequality in access to life-saving skills, and increasing costs for the NHS and mental health services.

Learning to swim and be safe around water is not a luxury, it’s a basic life skill. In the same way we teach every child to read a write, we should be teaching every child how to safely engage with the world around them, and a large part of that world is water.

Without our community pools, this ask is impossible.