News | Wednesday, 26th May 2021
Physio student meets Queen after receiving medal for lifesaving rescue
Sarah Downs shared her experiences of lifeguarding with Her Majesty at Royal Life Saving Society event
A physiotherapy student has shared her experiences of performing a lifesaving rescue at a special event with the Queen.
In 2018, Sarah Downs, then just 17-years-old, was lifeguarding at a pool where she lived in Exeter, when a child had a silent fit under the water. After pulling him out of the pool, she instantly performed CPR to resuscitate him and saved the boy’s life.
Downs later received a Royal Life Saving Society Russel Medal, which is an annual award for the most outstanding resuscitation or attempted resuscitation performed by a person under 18 years of age anywhere in the Commonwealth.
After there was no formal ceremony to receive the award due to COVID-19, she joined Her Majesty on a video call to celebrate 80 years of the society’s Junior Respiration Award – a lifesaving and resuscitation qualification that the Queen was the first to achieve in 1941 when she was 14 -years -old.
Downs said: “It feels strange to get so much recognition, receiving the medal and speaking to the Queen. It wasn’t a nice situation and it could have gone the complete opposite way if one thing went wrong, and I know if it was anyone else on duty at the time, they would have done the same thing.
“At the time of the incident I just instantly remembered all of my training and luckily it went well but afterwards I was a bit shook up.
“I had only been a lifeguard for around a year when the incident happened and I haven’t done much lifeguarding since but will be keen to get back to it once everything gets back to normal.”
Downs was joined on the video call with two other award winners and the President of the Royal Life Saving Society.
The Queen said she was “delighted to hear their stories” and that her efforts were “splendid”.
Downs also had the chance to ask Her Majesty about her memories of completing the lifesaving award as a teenager.
The Queen said that she “didn’t realise exactly what she was doing”, but it was a “great achievement” and was “proud to wear the badge” on the front of her swimming suit.
