Cyprus and Greece pool safety: A Mother's Story 
In September 2009 we were contacted by Darla Traina, who lives in Oregon, USA. In her e-mail, Darla related how just three months earlier, she and partner Ryan lost their beautiful two year-old daughter, Brooklynne to a pool drowning accident.
Since the accident, Darla has devoted much of her time to alerting parents in her community to the dangers which residential pools pose to young children. As part of her campaign, Darla contacted us to see what help and advice we could provide.
Many parents believe that close supervision is all that is required to ensure safety in and around the pool. However, though vitally important, parental supervision should be regarded as just one of many "layers of protection", which must also include a barrier such as a safety fence, safety net or safety cover. These prevent physical access to the pool for children in the high-risk 0-6 years age group.
Darla and Ryan want to spread the message that "making the pool safe" is something which all pool-owning parents need to think about and act on. For that reason they have kindly allowed us to provide a link to Brooklynne's memorial web page, the left-hand column of which describes the circumstances of their accident. The nature of this accident is such that no-one could possibly have foreseen the sequence of events which gave rise to it.
Darla and Ryan's wish is that if anything is to come from their sad loss, it is that even greater awareness is created with regard to child safety in and around the pool. That goes for friends and neighbours in their own community - and indeed for all parents of young children everywhere.
