logo
'My seven-year-old daughter was saved from drowning in the sea'

'My seven-year-old daughter was saved from drowning in the sea'

BBC News18-07-2025
A mother has thanked two men who saved her seven-year-old daughter from drowning while on a weekend away.Moira, 33, was with her family in Rhyl when her daughter Shylah and her aunt, who were playing in the sea, got into difficulty and were being swept away.The men Peter Szczepanski from Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, and Ben Malone from The Wirral immediately leapt to the rescue. The mother-of-three, from Manchester, said: "From the bottom of my heart, I just want to thank them both for their bravery and not thinking of themselves and just jumping in and saving my daughter's life.
"Shylah would not still be alive without them."Talking to BBC Radio Stoke, Moira said her daughter was now well and enjoying the media attention she had received in the aftermath.But added that she had become emotional during an end-of-term dance recital, realising her daughter might not have been there had events gone differently on 13 July.She explained that her family had been enjoying a day on the beach and Shylah was playing in the shallows with her aunt.
'Felt like forever'
There was a scream and she noticed that her daughter had been swept into deeper water and was floating out of reaching distance from her aunt.As she was running to help her daughter, Moira saw two men also running to help."It felt like it went on forever, but it must've been a few minutes," she said."My heart sank because she's literally a few metres in front of me, but I'd seen her flip off her floatie."At this point I thought she was going to drown in front of my eyes. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to her before she gave up – because she was doggy paddling."She said it all happened so suddenly, with Mr Malone and Mr Szczepanski reaching her daughter while she was still swimming out to reach them.
'Instinct'
Mr Szczepanski said he had been at the beach with his five-year-old daughter when he saw what was happening."You just had to do it and save the young girl," he said. "We just did something that a dad would do."Mr Malone added: "I'm lucky I had that instinct to just make that decision quite quickly to go."He said he was at the beach with his girlfriend and two children and that nothing had seemed out of the ordinary at first.Mr Malone said he felt relieved at getting to the little girl, but this turned to worry about possibly feeling too exhausted to get back.He said he then felt relief again at seeing Mr Szczepanski, and the pair passed the little girl between themselves as they swam back to shore.Moira later posted onto a Facebook group to thank them for their help, in the hope that they might see the message."I thanked them when it happened; obviously, then we were trying to look after Shyla, and we were so caught up in the moment that we didn't give them the praise that they deserve," she said.She added that Shyla had been quite upset shortly after the incident but was fine now.
Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Reading deeper into Virginia Woolf's vicious diary entry
Reading deeper into Virginia Woolf's vicious diary entry

The Guardian

time7 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Reading deeper into Virginia Woolf's vicious diary entry

John Harris confuses Virginia Woolf's admittedly vicious diary entry about disabled people with her firmly held beliefs in referring to her 'grim ideas' and associating her with contemporary eugenics (Again and again, we are shocked by the treatment of learning-disabled people. Yet we never learn from the past, 20 July). Under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, mentioned by Harris, Woolf could easily have been categorised as an 'imbecile' during her several breakdowns, and hallucinations occasioned by family deaths and sexual abuse by her half-brothers. Woolf's experiences of medical professionals who forced her to gain weight and forbade reading and writing (which made her life meaningful), and of private asylums, left her in no doubt of this possibility, which she illustrates so brilliantly in Mrs Dalloway. The diary entry is surely a defence mechanism and projection – caricaturing others' features to displace her personal HummVice-chair, Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Huge blaze breaks out at factory with 100 firefighters raced to scene & thick plumes of smoke billowing through sky
Huge blaze breaks out at factory with 100 firefighters raced to scene & thick plumes of smoke billowing through sky

The Sun

time37 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Huge blaze breaks out at factory with 100 firefighters raced to scene & thick plumes of smoke billowing through sky

OVER 100 firefighters are tackling a massive blaze that has engulfed a factory in Birmingham. Witnesses reported spotting huge plumes of smoke billowing from the four factory units on Great Bridge Street in Great Bridge at around 10.40am today. West Midlands Fire Service sent 15 crews to the scene and members of the public have been told to avoid the area. There have been no reported casualties but 'several' homes were evacuated. A West Midlands Fire Service spokesperson said: "We have 15 crews in attendance at Great Bridge Street, Great Bridge, where they have responded to a Factory Fire. "Please avoid the area, where possible."

Methodist church in Boston gets £250,000 for renovation work
Methodist church in Boston gets £250,000 for renovation work

BBC News

timean hour ago

  • BBC News

Methodist church in Boston gets £250,000 for renovation work

Boston's Centenary Methodist Church has been awarded £250,000 for renovations by the borough church said the funding was vital for the upkeep of the Grade II* listed plans to create a new community room, and said the money would help support the services it provides to people in money has been allocated from Levelling Up funds. The Reverend Val Ogden told BBC Radio Lincolnshire: "We need to do things like doors and floors and walls."We had damp problems to fix. We needed to refurbish one of the upper rooms that's underused at the moment, which will be for community space."The church provides services including community meals and providing a warm space during cold church said in a statement: "This investment ensures the long-term future of a cherished community space that serves people across the town and the borough."Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store