Lifeguard Appreciation Day shines a spotlight on the people who keep swimmers safe every day. It’s a chance to recognise the vigilance, training and dedication that lifeguards bring to pools, beaches and aquatic facilities across the world. Lifeguards are often the quiet heroes of the leisure industry, providing reassurance, responding in emergencies and helping create safe environments where communities can enjoy being active.
At Everybody Health & Leisure, Lifeguards do far more than watch the pool. They’re often the first friendly face customers see, the people who build confidence in the water, and the future leaders of our organisation. In fact, many of our managers and team members began their careers poolside, proving that lifeguarding can be the start of an incredible professional journey.
Katie Harrop: From Lifeguard to Head of People and Organisational Development
After a childhood spent swimming and playing sport at the leisure centre, Katie Harrop worked as a waitress following her GCSEs to earn money to pay for her National Pool Lifeguard Qualification (NPLQ). Her course took place once a week on Thursday evenings at Macclesfield Leisure Centre.
Once qualified, Katie started work as a Lifeguard at Poynton Leisure Centre and over a period of 4 years progressed to a Senior Recreation Assistant role. During this time, she also gained her Swim Teacher qualification and worked as a Swim Teacher before progressing to a Senior Swim Teacher role with another leisure trust.
Katie’s experience didn’t stop there. She also worked as a casual Receptionist, Trampoline Coach and Duty Manager across Poynton, Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Knutsford Leisure Centres, and as Sports Coach both in the centres and local primary schools.
In 2008 Katie began studying for her law degree part time at night school and partially stepped away from leisure, combining part-time swim teaching and music teaching with a Payroll/HR Administrator role at the council. During this period, she qualified as a Lifeguard Trainer Assessor, delivering NPLQ courses, monthly lifeguarding training sessions and assessments.
Katie then continued her combined leisure/HR career, eventually progressing to Head of HR & Organisational Development with another leisure trust before joining the Everybody Health & Leisure as a Senior HR Manager in 2018, a role that has evolved over time but remains a core part of her work today.
Over 20 years later Katie remains passionate about people and helping them develop, be that their swimming ability, general health & fitness, or in their careers. Now in a role where she can help enable these things every day, Katie relies on skills her lifeguard role helped her build the foundations for; including remaining calm under pressure and assessing situations to react effectively, and communicating with a wide range of people.
(Katie Harrop, 16, at her first Lifeguarding job!)
Eleanor Yearsley: Finding a Career in Leisure
Eleanor Yearsley originally started as a Leisure Assistant before becoming a Lifeguard, inspired by colleagues and wanting to learn first aid and rescue skills.
She worked casually as a Lifeguard throughout college, covering evenings, weekends and holidays, initially seeing the role as a way to earn extra money. After college, she took a gap year and successfully applied for a full-time Lifeguard position at Congleton Leisure Centre.
It was during this time that Eleanor discovered how rewarding leisure could be. Building relationships with customers and colleagues, supporting people as they learnt new skills, returned to swimming or achieved personal goals made her want to become more involved in helping others.
With support from Swim Lead Sam and the Everybody Academy, Eleanor completed her Swim England Level 1 and 2 teaching qualifications. She also independently achieved a Level 1 coaching qualification to support swimmers with stroke technique. Encouraged by colleagues, she developed her teaching skills and began delivering her own lessons.
Towards the end of her gap year, Eleanor realised leisure was the career she wanted to pursue. She joined Everybody’s sustainability course, working alongside managers to help plan for a sustainable future while continuing to lifeguard and teach swimming.
When a Team Lead position became available at Congleton, she applied with encouragement from her colleagues and peers. After successfully securing the role, she completed management qualifications, worked towards becoming a Relief Duty Manager and developed valuable leadership skills. She also achieved her Trainer Assessor qualification, becoming a Lifeguard Trainer.
Today, Eleanor has completed her management qualifications, become a Relief Duty Manager at Congleton and moved back to Crewe Leisure Centre in a full-time Duty Manager position. She has also delivered her first lifeguard course and numerous training sessions.
For Eleanor, lifeguarding opened the door to a rewarding and exciting career path and showed just how important entry-level roles are in shaping the future of the leisure industry.
Neil Ruff: Building Leadership Through Lifeguarding
After leaving school, Neil Ruff studied Leisure Studies at college, where he completed his RLSS Bronze Medallion at the old Crewe Swimming Pool. He then graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Leisure Studies.
Following university, Neil joined Knutsford Leisure Centre as a Lifeguard. Although he held a degree, he had no previous operational leisure centre experience. His first shift quickly highlighted the responsibility of the role when he was involved in a pool rescue for a young child who had got into difficulty in the water.
After approximately three years, Neil began shadowing Duty Manager shifts and secured part-time Team Leader and Duty Manager roles at Wilmslow and Knutsford Leisure Centres. He later progressed into a full-time Duty Manager position and achieved his RLSS Trainer Assessor qualification.
Neil describes becoming a Trainer Assessor as a major development opportunity. It improved his confidence in speaking to groups and helped him understand different teaching and learning styles, skills that continue to support his leadership approach today.
From Duty Manager, Neil progressed to Assistant Manager, then Site Manager and now Senior Area Manager.
Looking back, he credits many of his current strengths to the skills developed as a Lifeguard, including communication, decision-making, leadership, health and safety awareness and remaining calm under pressure.
Duncan Hodges: From Lifeguard to General Manager
Duncan Hodges began his leisure career as a Lifeguard at Macclesfield Leisure Centre, developing a strong understanding of customer service, health and safety and delivering positive experiences for customers. His commitment to learning and development led to promotion as Senior Leisure Attendant, where he also supported the Duty Management team as a Casual Duty Manager. These opportunities gave him valuable experience in staff supervision, operational decision-making and leisure centre management.
Duncan then secured a Contract Duty Manager position, working across multiple Everybody sites including Alsager, Poynton, Knutsford and Macclesfield. Working across different centres allowed him to build adaptability, resilience and a broad understanding of operational best practice.
His next step was Assistant Manager at the brand-new Congleton Leisure Centre. Being involved in a newly opened facility helped him gain experience in establishing operational standards, developing teams and supporting the successful launch of a new centre.
The skills and experience gained throughout this journey ultimately led to his current role as General Manager at Knutsford Leisure Centre. Today, Duncan leads teams, drives operational excellence, maintains compliance and supports both the commercial and community objectives of the centre.
Having progressed from Lifeguard to General Manager, he remains passionate about supporting the development of colleagues and delivering excellent services for customers and communities.
Lucy Bourne: Making Waves in Marketing
Lucy Bourne started her Everybody journey as a Lifeguard at Nantwich Leisure Centre in January 2012. During her time at the centre, she took advantage of a range of development opportunities, training as a Lifeguard Trainer Assessor, Swim Teacher and Receptionist. These experiences helped her build valuable skills, knowledge and confidence.
Lucy had always enjoyed marketing, having studied business at school and developed an interest in social media. When a Marketing Assistant vacancy became available in 2015, she saw an opportunity to pursue a new career while staying within the organisation.
After successfully securing the role, Lucy joined the marketing team and worked on major projects including the launches of Crewe Lifestyle Centre and Holmes Chapel Community Centre. She continued to develop professionally through training opportunities and completed the Certificate in Professional Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Since then, Lucy has progressed from Marketing Assistant to Marketing Account Executive and now Senior Marketing Executive, leading health and One You Cheshire East marketing activity.
Throughout her career, she has worked across a wide variety of projects including new facility launches, event management, campaign management and member success stories that showcase the life-changing impact of Everybody’s services. She has supported teams across the Everybody Academy, leisure centres, Taste for Life cafés, Everybody Foundation, Sport for Everybody and health services, gaining experience across digital marketing, design, photography, video production, website content, public relations, campaign planning, analytics, radio advertising and more.
These stories show that lifeguarding is much more than a job. It develops confidence, communication skills, leadership, teamwork and lifesaving knowledge that can support a wide range of careers. That’s one of the reasons the RLSS UK continues to champion the message that lifeguarding can be the first step towards exciting opportunities in leisure and beyond.
At Everybody Health & Leisure, we’re proud to support people at every stage of their journey. Whether you’re looking for your first role, exploring volunteering opportunities, developing new skills through the Everybody Academy or taking the next step in your career, there are plenty of ways to get involved.
From lifeguarding and apprenticeships to training, volunteering and career development opportunities, there’s a place for everybody. Because today’s Lifeguards could be tomorrow’s teachers, managers, marketers and leaders.
And on Lifeguard Appreciation Day, we’d like to say a huge thank you to every Lifeguard past and present who helps keep our communities safe, supported and active.
