24 July 2023 , 23:01
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Haydn Griffiths was 23, a lifelong sailor, fit as a fiddle and a keen swimmer when he drowned in the waters he loved.
Now his family has joined an RNLI campaign to save lives during the school summer holidays. They spoke out to highlight today’s World Drowning Prevention Day.
And they said if someone like Haydn - a sailor since the age of six - can drown, anyone can. Their warning came as RNLI figures revealed lifeguards attended more than 10,000 incidents on UK beaches last year, aiding 13,758 people from July 25 to September 2.
Haydn, a budding merchant seaman, was with a female friend when they decided to swim three miles to an offshore wind farm.
Megan Griffiths looks to the sky at a vigil at Derby Pool, Wallasey (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)They were half a mile short and had decided to head back to shore when he got into difficulty. His sister Megan, 30, said: “We think he was bitten by a jellyfish because he started complaining of cramps.
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“He was struggling but told his friend to keep heading for land and he would wait for the tide to turn and it would wash him ashore.”
The woman made it to the beach and raised the alarm, sparking a huge sea search last summer along the Wirral coastline between Holylake and New Brighton. It involved two RNLI lifeboats, a helicopter, the coastguard, the police, the public and the fire service.
Dan Whiteley, 33, from the Hoylake lifeboat station, said: “The night was clear with a bit of a swell which got worse as the hours went by but everyone was, as always, hoping for the best. But this is a very dangerous area and anyone can drown here.”
Connor Wray, 30, was on board a lifeboat from New Brighton. It was his first-ever mission.
He said: “We were out for ten or eleven hours. We were desperate to find him because we always want to bring someone missing home to their loved ones.”
It wasn’t to be and as the hours ticked by it became clear the sea had claimed another victim leaving Haydn’s family, from Wigan, Greater Manchester devastated. His body was recovered from the water days later.
Haydn’s other sister, Brogan, 28, said: “We never thought he would drown, he knew the sea too well and we just thought he would be found, injured maybe but still alive.
“He was unbelievably fit with less than two per cent body fat …”, she pauses before adding, “Maybe that didn’t help because he had no fat to help him float.”
She added: “Haydn was just one exam away from becoming a fully-fledged merchant seaman and the exam took place on the day of his funeral. It just wasn’t meant to be, was it?”
Megan added: “All we hope for is that he went quickly. We hope he saw his last sunset over the water and he slipped away peacefully.”
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Gareth Morrison, head of water safety at the RNLI, said: “Heart-breaking stories like Haydn’s really drive home the message that the sea is unpredictable, and tragedy really can happen to anyone, even those with huge experience around the water like Haydn.
“Now the weather is warming up we expect to see a big increase in visitors to UK coastlines and unfortunately this does mean there is likely to be an increase in the number of incidents in the sea.
“Many of the incidents our lifeguards attend during the school holidays involve children and teenagers and we would urge everyone to be aware of the risks and know what to do in an emergency.”
There were 226 deaths in the UK from accidental drownings in 2022, across inland and coastal locations. Of these, 41 were in July and 44 in August – more than twice the number than in any other month.
The third World Drowning Prevention Day follows a UN resolution on drowning prevention, acknowledging the issue for the first time in its 75-year history.
Megan and Brogan are now fundraising for the RNLI. A lifeboat like the Shannon class Edmund Hawthorn Micklewood, costs over £2.3million while the trailer-tractor combination to launch it costs £1.4million.
Megan added: “I never pass an RNLI charity box without putting something in because the men who work there - often volunteers - are incredible human beings.”