Couple launch South Africa swim programme after daughter's death

A Scottish woman has told how the death of her daughter in a swimming pool accident led to the creation of a water safety programme in South Africa.

Kirsty Doig moved to South Africa with her husband James and their two young children in 2018.

The family founded The Darcey Sunshine Foundation after their three-year-old Darcey drowned in 2020.

Mrs Doig told BBC Scotland they wanted to remove the financial barrier to water safety in Western Cape.

The foundation will bring water safety education to South African schools.

The Doigs decided to move to Cape Town following a family holiday that made them fall in love with South Africa.

To prepare for their drastic change in lifestyle, the couple said they ensured their children were confident swimmers.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime with John Beattie, Mrs Doig said: "We knew when we were moving to South Africa we were now in a very different environment. We had a house with a swimming pool and we made sure as a matter of huge importance that our children could swim.

"Darcey had spent hours in our swimming pool. She could swim really, really well but sadly being able to swim doesn't account for all eventualities in the water, as we've come to learn.

"That day an accident in the pool caused a huge distraction which then led to us missing the fact that Darcey had also been involved which ended with her tragically drowning that day."

About 800 people a year die from drowning in South Africa. Three-quarters of the deaths are children with five to 15 year olds most at risk, according to the country's National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).

In the weeks and months following Darcey's death, and as the world went into lockdown, Mrs Doig said she looked at her local communities and imagined how she could bring about change.

"I think when there is any loss, any grief, a journey takes place where you start to look into and research the reasons behind that loss," she said.

"I found myself going down the rabbit hole of drowning and ways of preventing it. Here we are today running a foundation where we promote and teach practical water safety to children in our local communities who would be otherwise completely unable to access that kind of education."

The NSRI said recently that only 15% of South Africans could swim.

The foundation partners with schools and experienced trainers for weekly swimming lessons.

The aim is to equip children with the knowledge and skills to be safe in open bodies of water like reservoirs and rivers, as well as swimming pools.

Mrs Doig told the BBC: "We work with children between the ages of five and six, so right at the start of that demographic where they're at the highest risk of drowning in these open bodies of water.

"We reinforce at every stage that they turn to float if they need to breathe and that's one of the main philosophies that we live by.

"If a child can fall in the water and turn on their back and breathe then they can call for help and they can survive."

Mrs Doig said she hoped that water safety would one day be a regular part of the school curriculum.

"We're trying to make it instinctual to all the children that we work with that if they do end up in the water they can react in a way that will hopefully save their lives," she said.