Life-saving course in memory of Loui

The mum of a tragic Wigan toddler who drowned while on holiday is heading to America to learn life-saving water-based skills.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Jun 2016, 09:00 BST
Updated 13th Jun 2016, 12:24 BST
Loui AspinallLoui Aspinall
Loui Aspinall

Emma Hollingsworth will travel across the Atlantic next month, where she will undergo the “Float and survive” programme.

It’s almost three years since Emma and her partner Gavin Aspinall’s world was torn apart by Loui’s death.

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The Hindley Green family was on holiday in Tunisia in September 2013 when Loui got into trouble in the hotel swimming pool and tragically drowned.

MP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holidayMP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holiday
MP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holiday

An inquest later delivered a verdict of accidental death and Emma and her family have since launched a campaign to make pools safer for children.

One point of this is rolling out key life saving skills and the family has been fund-raising to send Emma to America to get the training that is not available in this country.

She said: “We’ve raised £11,500 since we started.

“The next step is to go to America in July for the training course which will take about four weeks.”

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MP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holidayMP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holiday
MP Yvonne Fovargue with the parents of Loui Aspinall who died after drowning in a pool on holiday

Float and Survive is a programme that teaches children from the age of six months how to roll over and float in water.

It teaches them to hold their breath under water, to roll on their back, float unassisted and other techniques.

There is currently no such course in the UK and, armed with the knowledge of how to teach the skills, Emma wants to roll it out across Wigan and the UK.

Last week marked Water Safety Week with awareness raised about staying safe in water.

And Emma hopes she can make a difference upon her return.

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“We’ve been in contact with local swimming baths and spoke to them about rolling this out at their pools and we’ve had a really good response,” she said.

“It’s hard because until we’ve got the training we don’t know what it will properly entail so we’ve got to take it from there once I get back from America.

“It’s all in memory of Loui, the fund-raising has been called Doit4Loui.

“We miss him every day, it still doesn’t feel real.”

For more information on the course visit http://doit4loui.wix.com/float-n-survive.

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