Olympian urges safety after region's water deaths

Alice Dearing spoke at the former club of current Olympic silver medallist Matt Richards in Worcester

A retired British Olympic swimmer has urged people only to swim where it is safe after two boys died in the water in the West Midlands.

Alice Dearing, who competed in Tokyo in 2021, now specialises in open water swimming.

She said the deaths of eight-year-old Joshua Hillstead in Warwickshire and Tyrese Johnson, 16, in Dudley were "really sad cases".

Speaking at Perdiswell Leisure Centre in Worcester, Ms Dearing said: "About half of drownings happen in June, July and August when the weather gets warm. Cold water shock is a serious issue."

Joshua Hillstead died in hospital on 23 July after he was pulled from the River Arrow in Alcester the day before.

The body of Tyrese Johnson was recovered on 24 July after getting into difficulties in Lodge Farm Reservoir, Netherton.

"We always advise people - please, please, please, don't ever jump into water. Only swim where it's lifeguarded, only somewhere it's safe," said Ms Dearing.

"There's a reason these places aren't lifeguarded and if there's no-one there, we just don't want to see cases like this but sadly they still happen far too often," she added.

Water safety work

Alice Dearing became the first black woman to swim for Great Britain at an Olympic Games in Tokyo and co-founded the Black Swimming Association.

It aims to diversify the sport through education, advocacy, support and research - and raise awareness about the importance of water safety.

She was speaking on Monday at an event to promote National Lottery funding of aquatic sports, held at the former club of Matt Richards, who won a silver at the Paris Games.