John Newman
Where do you currently lifeguard?
Scottish Borders, Coldingham Bay
What skills and experience do you have in Lifeguarding?
Full time professional Lifeguard.
8 years for the RNLI. I spend seven months a year working in Sydney, Australia for the Northern Beaches Council, then a 4 months in Scotland as a Senior Guard. I’m an RNLI Trainer Assessor which means I can deliver training on the coast.
How have you been impacted by the lack of financial/gov support?
After the Foreign Office advised Brits abroad to return home, I cut my season short in Australia by 3 weeks in case I couldn’t get a flight out, the RNLI Lifeguard season was still going ahead then. By the time I got back into the country the season was postponed and I realised that we weren’t going to get any financial support from the government.
I have applied to work on every single farm within a 50 mile radios but I haven’t heard anything back.
Job Seekers Allowance has still not come in so I have no income currently. Fortunately my parents have let me move in with them when I returned back to Scotland.
Read More Stories
People and families have been impacted by the issues raised in this campaign, you can read about some of our lifeguard’s personal stories here.
