Why the Prince and Princess of Wales are putting water safety in the spotlight

A community pool in northern England is getting the royal seal of approval from the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Birtley Community Pool in Gateshead has reopened after a lack of funding forced it to close last year. After the community came together, Gateshead Council reopened the pool last month. A few weeks later, Prince William and Olympic gold medal winners, Tom Dean and Adam Peaty, met as a new partnership between the facility and a foundation run by the Prince and Princess of Wales was announced.

The royals will now back providing swim lessons and lifeguard training to those in the Gateshead area.

Over the last few months, the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales has been working closely with those looking to get the pool up and running again.

Local volunteers had set up the Birtley Community Aquatic Centre (BCAC) after the pool closed. At the time of the announcement of Birtley’s reopening, Matthew Grant, the treasurer of the group said: ”“It is a huge achievement for us to have reached this point. We have had to raise over £400,000 to get all of the work done on the pool and that has come from a variety of sources, including a lot of support from the local community here.”

A total of £272,383 was secured from the Community Ownership Fund in August after crowdfunding helped raise thousands of pounds. The money will help cover things like installing lighting, refurbishing other facilities on-site, and replacing the boilers. Meanwhile, £50,000 will be used to cover the running costs for the team that took on the project in May and the full reopening.

Upon his visit, the Prince of Wales toured the centre where he watched lifeguard training and swimming lessons happen. He also learned how one in three children in the UK leaves primary education because they can’t swim. When asked on the support of the foundation, he said:  “We want to replicate this across the country because swimming is such an important part of life. We’re an island nation, we should all have access to learn how to swim.”

Paralympic swimmers Louise Fiddes and Maisie Summers Newton also joined William, Peaty, and Dean for the visit.

The Prince did mention why he wasn’t seen at the Paris Olympics this past summer. He said he had a fear of getting coronavirus and passing it on to Catherine who was still undergoing chemotherapy at the time. William told the swimming stars that “I was so keen to come but, I have to say, after reading someone’s interview about Covid I decided, because my wife was obviously having chemo, that I didn’t want to risk bringing Covid home.”

“So Adam very kindly reminded me that was still a thing. But we watched the whole thing. We were glued to it every day.”

The Princess of Wales announced last month that she had now completed chemotherapy.