Mum who lost son in drowning incident to host Water Safety event in Dungannon
A former Dungannon woman who lost her son in a drowning incident more than 20 years ago is holding a Watersafetymum event in the town's Leisure Centre on Saturday.
Olivia Espie, who now lives in Ballymena, made a vow to raise awareness around water safety after her son, Ryan Pearson, died in a pool incident when the family was on holiday to Lanzarote in 2000.
The event – aimed at educating families of the dangers around water – will take place on what would have been Ryan's 30th birthday - September 28.
Members of the public are invited to come along fpr 12 noon and see the RNLI crews give a demonstration on our Float to Live message also come and learn with the folks from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Community
First Responders as they teach CPR and how is use a defib.
Olivia runs a series of social media pages called ‘WaterSafety Mum’ which aim to educate people to help increase water safety awareness.
Visit the ‘WaterSafety Mum’ Facebook site here to keep up to date with forthcoming events.
Recalling losing Ryan 30 years ago, Olivia said: "On our journey home all I could think of was how soon Ryan would be coming home. Would it be long before my little boy would be back with me again?
"I knew that as soon as Ryan was home again I would have to say my goodbyes yet again to him. I really did not know what was going to happen. How was I going to get through the next day with having to keep saying my goodbyes to my little Ryan?
"I really should have never decided to go on this holiday and I feel that my little boy would still be here today if it had not been for the holiday. I suppose it was there and then that I first made the decision that this must not happen again to any other family but little did I know what was still in front of me."