I am delighted to have joined Leeds Trinity University as a postgraduate research student having successfully proposed a research project in the area of environmental physiology and drowning prevention. Based within the Faculty of Social and Health Sciences, I join Professor Martin Barwood and his team, experts working on drowning prevention and water safety research – an area of significant interest to me due to my prior employment, and experiences in, aquatic environments.

After finishing high school, I embarked on a professional career in the UK Armed Forces where I qualified as a Royal Navy (RN) submariner and earned the coveted 'dolphins' badge. Over nearly five years I served on three operational SSN attack submarines, traversing waters around the UK, Mediterranean, Middle East and Southern Asia. Interestingly, I also served throughout virtually all of the longest deployment of an RN submarine, lasting over 11 months and clocking 38,000 nautical miles, equivalent to circumnavigating Earth nearly one-and-three-quarter times!

During those deployments, I was exposed to extreme occupational and environmental conditions in the conduct of my submariner duties, for example: six-hours-on/six-hours-off shift work, absence of sunlight, working in heat stress-inducing temperatures, and immersion in turbulent seawater. On the latter, I have felt the awe-inspiring power of water as a bridge watchkeeper harnessed to a surface-transiting submarine that was washed over when broaching terrific waves; such experiences serve as an important reminder of the dangers of water to which humans are not well adapted, nor respond well to, if unprepared and unexpectedly immersed.

I have also swum in the calm open ocean where it should be easy for me to float – unfortunately, this is not the case. I could not maintain a motionless back float in the water due to my athletic physique where some of my RN crewmates could; something I first noticed in a freshwater pool during my naval swim test where I similarly struggled to remain afloat and tread water, even for just 2 minutes. Those two minutes can be vital for survival if falling into cold water (≤15^oC) where rapid skin cooling causes physiological implications that can preclude efforts at remaining afloat and lead to drowning (Tipton et al., 2017). Hence it is advised to 'float first', but the viability of such advice could depend on the ability to float, which differs individually.

This interest led me to contact Professor Barwood, whose prior research, conducted whilst at Portsmouth University, has helped inform national water safety campaigns and determined the effect of falling in clothed on flotation, where trapped air was found to aid buoyancy during those two minutes (Barwood et al., 2011). The Float to Live campaign, run by the RNLI and informed by Professor Mike Tipton’s research (Portsmouth University), saved 11 lives alone in 2019; it is inspiring to see the meaningful difference science can make. After reading around drowning statistics, I was shocked to learn that around 250,000 people drown every year, a number that is thought to be an underestimate by 2-5 times, and that has spurred preventative responses from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.

Sunday 25 July 2021 marked the inception of World Drowning Prevention Day – a day to remember loved ones lost but also an opportunity to work towards significantly reducing preventable drowning fatalities that hit the youngest, poorest, and least equipped hardest. This, the ability to work with Professor Barwood and the offer of a studentship were undoubtedly the decisive reasons I joined Leeds Trinity and I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so. I hope to repay the faith and investment placed in me by the institution and my supervisors by delivering and disseminating valuable research that contributes to efforts to reduce this public health burden.

Tom Hall-Say is part of the PhD Studentship Programme at Leeds Trinity University, which means his PhD is fully funded by the University. Find out more about our research degrees on our website.

Bibliography

Barwood et al. (2011): https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/ijare/vol5/iss2/3/

Tipton et al. (2017): https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1113/EP086283