A woman who lost her son in a drowning incident over 20 years ago is encouraging GAA club members to attend a free water safety webinar this month.
Olivia Espie, who is originally from Dungannon, made a vow to raise awareness around water safety after her son, Ryan Pearson, died in a pool incident when the family was on holiday to Lanzarote in 2000.
Trained by the RNLI, Olivia runs a series of social media pages called ‘WaterSafety Mum’ which aim to educate people to help increase water safety awareness and prevent loss of life.
The webinar will be held on World Drowning Prevention Day – Thursday, July 25 – from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.
Local clubs and communities are encouraged to sign up to the event, which will give them the opportunity to meet with the RNLI water safety team online and gain valuable knowledge in drowning prevention.
The GAA and the RNLI work together in partnership to raise awareness of drowning prevention and to educate communities.
According to statistics from Water Safety Ireland and WAID NI, there have been an average of 115 drownings per year on the island of Ireland from 2018 to 2022, with 74% of drownings occurring within the home county of the victim.
You can sign up for the free webinar by visiting the EventBrite link here.
