‘Hero’ dad rescues drowning children from Eastbourne sea

Russell Ash, 38, was on the beach between the bandstand and the pier on Sunday (August 9) afternoon.

He was sitting with his four-year-old son Ralphy when he saw a young girl struggling to stay afloat in the water.

The self-employed carpenter said his first reaction was to rescue her.

Russell said, “I was sat on the beach and I saw the girl struggling so I chucked my shoes off and went out to get her. The sea was really choppy.

“As I was swimming towards her she was drifting further away and all I could see is her eyes looking at me wanting help. Her head was going under water, bobbing up and down. I managed to grab hold of her.

“When I got to her she was so happy, she knew she was going to be safe. I really didn’t think we were going to make it. I’m not the fittest person in terms of cardio. The current was dragging us down.

“Everything was in slow motion. Everything seemed like a lifetime. The look in the girl’s eyes kept me going.

“I started swimming back to shore on my front and I remembered from school a lifesaving course we did, so I spun around and got onto my back and put her head on my chest.”

Russell said as he was swimming back a young boy, roughly around the age of nine, the same age he said as the girl, was shouting over for help.

The single dad said, “When I saw the boy I was closer to the floor so I could stand up. I managed to get them both back in safely.

“The girl’s aunty was there at shore and she was really grateful.”

Reflecting after the event, Russ said he ’just did what anyone else would do’.

“At the time I thought nothing of it. But, there’s no way if I left it a moment later she would have had a chance. I was sat there with my four-year-old son, everyone knew what was happening. I just ran out to get her,” Russ said.

“I didn’t think anything of it until people started calling me a hero on Facebook. I just did what anyone would do.”

Russ said it has been an ‘eye opener’ for him and has urged parents to keep a watchful eye on their children at the beach.

He said, “There’s no way lifeguards can keep an eye on everyone at the beach. It’s also hard to tell whether a child is drowning or playing. You would have to have 100 lifeguards.

“This has been a huge eye opener for me. All it takes is a second or a tiny little distraction for something to go wrong.”

Russ said both his daughter Aliyah, 11, and his son Ralphy have called him a hero and that he has been ‘truly overwhelmed’ by the response he has received from people online.

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