'I had my first swimming lesson in 20 years - everyone like me should do the same'

'I had my first swimming lesson in 20 years - everyone like me should do the same' The importance of swimming has been highlighted this year as the Royal Life Saving Society warns that extreme weather is a major influence in the number of drownings One in three adults can't swim the full length of a 25-metre swimming pool, and I'm among them - despite having received lessons up until age 11 at my inner-city school. That's why this week I decided that, as part of our Save Lives for Sam campaign, I would take my first swimming lesson in 20 years. I've had zero confidence in my swimming ability for a long time, and that lack of confidence has seen me dangerously panic and flounder when attempting to swim during summer holidays. So I was keen but scared to venture back into the water of even a controlled environment like a pool. But I was able to rediscover some of my lost skills thanks to the incredible tutoring of an experienced teacher at Highbury Leisure Centre in Islington, North London. As thousands of Brits like me head out to the seaside this summer, I can only recommend that they do the same - especially if they've never learned how to swim before. I have happy memories of learning to swim as a child, and got some high praise from my family and teachers for being relatively good at it. I was even lucky enough to get one or two of those coveted Frosties badges while Kelloggs were sponsoring the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) back in the 1990s and early 2000s. But I've spent all of my 31 years in London, meaning that like most inner-city Brits, I tend not to encounter many opportunities for a swim. Swimming as a skill has become more vital than ever, especially during years as hot as this one, when people try to beat the heat on the coast, whether here in the UK or abroad. According to the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), our partners on our Save Lives for Sam campaign, most drowning deaths occur during extreme heat. Dozens of people have died this summer alone, with 52 deaths of both adults and children since May 24 and August 9. Among them are six-year-old Saja El-Khawasm, who died days after her parents Hassan, 55, and Zeina, 37, and sister Sara, 14, perished after getting into difficulty in the sea in Shoreham, West Sussex on Tuesday. The charity has found that three times more people drown accidentally in the UK during extreme heat compared to typical summer conditions. I've gone running to the sea myself in recent years, and discovered while there that I was woefully unprepared to enter the water. So this month (ahead of another summer holiday) the RLSS put me in touch with their partners at Greenwich Leisure Limited, to organise some lessons with a teacher, Martine. Martine teaches across age and ability, ranging from the very young to older people who want to brush up on their skills later in life, when swimming can serve as an essential health boost. Before we got into the pool, she outlined to me just how important it is for people know how to swim. She told me: "Swimming is a life skill, it's a survival skill. It's something that, if you learn as a child, you're lucky. It's something that never really leaves you." Those who haven't learned as a child - including a large number of children from the UK's most deprived areas, who the RLSS' Child Drownings report found drown at twice the rate of the least deprived - face danger as adults. Martine added: "If you consider those children who haven't had any experience at all, as they go into adulthood, there's nothing there. So any time spent near the water is potentially dangerous, because if they fall in, they won't know how to save themselves, or how even to call for help, how to alert. All of those things are really important." She was incredibly encouraging from the moment I entered the pool, allowing me to get acquainted with the chilly chlorinated waters and teaching me the appropriate way to breathe. Unlike most forms of exercise, including going for a jog, swimming requires measured and practiced breathing. I learned nearly straight away when I attempted my first front crawl in decades how important it is - if you don't breathe properly water can flow into your nose and mouth. Water flooding into your orificies creates a unique panic, one that made me abandon mid-length and stand up in the shallow end. In any other situation, like in a river, lake or swimming in the sea, a move like that could have been dangerous. But Martine calmly helped me through the moment, and out the other side I came, ready to go for a second punt at the front crawl and back stroke - which she had taught me earlier in easy-to-follow stages. When I was able to get to the middle of the pool, we moved onwards to the deep end. There I learned my most important lesson; that I can still manage a serviceable breaststroke. I realised after Martine gave me a short demonstration that I remembered many of the important motions. So clearly, there was some tutoring tucked in the back of my mind that the lessons had helped resurrect, and Martine explained to me that many people will find the same happens to them when they try swimming. But they also hammered home how vital it is that people have a solid understanding of the most important basics first. I was eventually able to swim an entire length of the pool, a milestone I didn't think I'd be able to achieve. I've been figuratively and literally buoyed by the experience. The only negative was that there was no Kelloggs badge my mum could sew on to my shorts this time though. The Mirror has launched the Save Lives For Sam water safety campaign to tackle the UK's growing drowning crisis. Backed by MPs, Olympic champions, national water safety organisations and bereaved families, the campaign is calling for urgent action to make our waters safer. That includes compulsory water safety lessons in schools, a nationwide public awareness campaign, better lifesaving equipment at high-risk waterways, the introduction of Sam's Law, and a dedicated Minister for Water Safety. Find out more about the campaign and how you can support it here.