A drowning prevention campaign, which aims to cut down the hundreds of deaths caused by accidental drowning across the UK every year, is receiving huge support from the leisure industry.

Leisure centres across the nation are signing up to support Drowning Prevention Week 2014, which aims to cut down the hundreds of deaths caused by accidental drowning across the UK every year.

The centres are running a host of events and activities using the free educational resources provided by the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK), including a ‘Perry Pack’ exclusively designed for pools.

This year’s campaign, running from 21-29 June, is adding to its focus audience of primary school children, by targeting 11- to 15-year-olds.

Leisure centres have witnessed a number of tragedies in recent years, with responses such as the new STITCH accident benchmarking tool intended to mitigate this, however the fact that one in three primary school leavers are reportedly unable to swim means operators will need to be constantly vigilant.

Accidental drowning causes around 400 UK deaths every year and remains the third highest cause of accidental death in children in the UK.

Operator GLL has committed to running the Drowning Prevention Week activities across its Better leisure centre network.

“We are delighted to support RLSS UK to inform as many young people as possible and reduce the shocking number of people drowning each year,” said GLL managing director Mark Sesnan.

“We believe that it is crucial for everyone to be able to swim, and we will continue to educate our customers about how to be safe near water, while offering what we think will be really fun activities for children and adults.”

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