Young tot saves his own life in pool drama thanks to lessons from Wigan mum

Emma Aspinall from Hindley Green, set up DoIt4Loui in memory of two-year-old son Loui, who drowned while on holiday in Tunisia in 2013, in a bid to prevent the same tragedy hitting other families.

She was delighted to learn that a young boy who attended her classes had been able to stay safe in a pool thanks to the skills he had learned.

The three-year-old boy - whose family do not wish for him to be identified - was on holiday recently at Center Parcs in Nottingham with his family.

His mother had been watching him and his older brother go up and down slides in a splash area, when she realised he had not gone back down the slide.

She ran to the pool just as the boy’s grandad was lifting him out of the water.

It appears the boy had walked into a pool with a sloping floor and as the water became deeper, he could no longer touch the ground.

He was trying to swim to his grandparents and rolled onto his back to rest.

Emma said: “His grandparents said he was trying to float to them, which is what we teach. I tell them to rest and roll over and breathe.”

Fortunately the boy was not hurt, but both he and his mother were shaken up by what had happened.

Emma said: “It’s one thing doing it in lessons, but when it happens in real life it’s going to be a shock, especially for a three-year-old boy.

“His mum was really shaken up as well. She said it was about six minutes from her losing him to finding him. She said without him knowing what he knew, it have been end of story.

“She sent me a message saying she wanted to thank me for everything I have taught her boys because without that, she would have lost her little boy.”

Emma was at the pool when she received the message and says she burst into tears when she returned home.

“It was the emotions of joy and relief, but also the fact that things like that happen all the time and it could have been a different story if he didn’t know how to do that. It was a lot of mixed emotions,” she said.

“I was thinking of Loui as well and I wished he had these skills, as it would have been a different story for me as well.”

The boy and his mum visited Emma and gave her a bouquet of flowers to thank her for the lessons provided by both her and her colleague Paula Cheetham-Serjent.

And seeing him looking so well made Emma realise that everything she has done in memory of Loui has been worth it.

She said: “He could have lost his life that day and he didn’t. I’m made up for him.

“Everything I do and everything I fight for, I always said that if it saves one child, I have been right to do it.

“I have done what I am called to do, I have saved this life.”

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