00:00The RNLI has been marking 25 years of its lifeguards keeping people safer on beaches across the UK and Channel
00:08Islands.
00:08Having started in Cornwall in 2001, the service was rolled out to Wales in 2008,
00:14and since then lifeguards in Wales have saved 315 lives, completed over 3,000 rescues,
00:21and have carried out more than 6.5 million preventative actions.
00:25The service first began in Wales in Pembrokeshire, and RNLI beach lifeguards in the south-west Wales county
00:31have saved 164 lives, leading the number of lives saved in Wales.
00:37Senior lifeguard Gwen Evans has been reflecting on her time at the RNLI.
00:42So I've worked across South Pembrokeshire for five years now, this is my fifth season,
00:46working across eight different beaches, I've loved it, and I think I'll continue to come back for maybe a few
00:52more seasons.
00:53My favourite part about the whole five years I've done here now is talking to the people that come here,
00:59and especially when you help someone, they tend to come back year after year,
01:03and they'll often come up to you and tell you about their story,
01:07and it's nice to always see them coming back every year.
01:10It's really nice to have this moment, 25 years, to look back and think of all the different things that
01:16we've done,
01:16and all the families who have gone home, or individuals who have gone home to their families,
01:22that might not have been if the service wasn't here.
01:24And it's such a large number that you don't really think, when you finish your shift at the end of
01:29the day,
01:30even if it was just one person that day, that it all builds up.
01:33And to look at that number now is just a really nice moment to think what we've done as a
01:37service.
01:38Lifeguards spend much of their time taking preventative actions to help keep the public safe,
01:43but the sea can be unpredictable, and there are moments when the team must intervene in challenging conditions.
01:50RNLI Lifeguard Supervisor Carl Amos has been part of the South Pembrokeshire Lifeguard team since joining age 18.
01:58He says he could never have predicted exactly what the service would become today,
02:02but what stands out for him is the continual commitment to improvement.
02:06My name's Carl Amos. I'm a Lifeguard Supervisor here in South Pembrokeshire.
02:11I've been with the RNLI since 2008, when the RNLI first came to Wales.
02:17This year we're celebrating 25 years of RNLI Lifeguards on our beaches,
02:22so we're doing a bit of sand art in celebration of that.
02:25Over the years, it has changed quite significantly,
02:28from the equipment we use on the beaches to our team sizes and the amount of lifeguards you may see
02:34on the beach.
02:35Training's evolved quite significantly, but there's one thing that really hasn't changed,
02:39which is sort of our core purpose, which is preventing incidents on our beach,
02:43keeping people safe and saving lives at sea.
02:46It makes me incredibly proud to play my sort of part within a wider service,
02:53to play my sort of small part in saving so many lives and helping so many people on our coast.
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