Bunbury seniors learn to save lives

Two keen seniors recently learnt valuable lifesaving skills as part of the Royal Life Saving Grey Medallion program at the South West Sports Centre in Bunbury.

The Grey Medallion is a water safety and lifesaving skills initiative for older adults, which aims to encourage a healthy, independent and active lifestyle through the development of essential skills in order to participate in aquatic recreation activities safely. The program also helps to prepare participants with skills that could assist them in saving the lives of their grandchildren, friends or family should they get into trouble around water.

As part of the program trainer Lorrae Barron taught participants Lynn and Bill personal water survival techniques, improved swimming skills, skills to deal with emergency situations and a thorough understanding of water safety knowledge in order to reduce the likelihood of drowning. Unfortunately, older Australians (those aged 55 and over) make up a large proportion of the drowning statistics in Australia and as the population is ageing this continues to increase.

Royal Life Saving WA is planning to run more Grey Medallion program across metro and regional WA in the new year. If you know someone who would be keen to get involved we'd love for them to register their interest at the link below!