CQ’s popular radio announcer advocates for preschool swim lessons

“People think it’s like the movies and you will see someone waving for help but in fact it’s silent and you won’t know if you aren’t watching.”

PInky Neven promotes water safety for Qld kids

Breakfast Radio Announcer Pinky Neven is among a group of high-profile Australians lending their support to help increase water safety education for under-fives.

Pinky has joined other famous Aussies including Dave Hughes (Hughesy), Cathy Freeman, Anna Meares and Mark Minichiello to be part of the Kids Alive Storytime with Famous Friends.

The project involves the stars reading one of the Kids Alive water safety books covering safety messages for the pool, beach, farm, and home.

Water safety education is a topic close to Pinky’s heart, as she tragically lost her youngest brother to drowning when she was 11.

“I want to prevent other families from living that tragedy,” Pinky said.

Pinky believes there needs to be government-funded swimming lessons for under fives and more education for Australian adults about water safety and drowning.

“People think it’s like the movies and you will see someone waving for help but in fact it’s silent and you won’t know if you aren’t watching,” she said.

“I was adamant my daughter would be taught to swim from an early age and I took her to lessons when she was six months old.”

Laurie Lawrence, who founded Kids Alive 21 years ago, said the book readings aligned with aspects of the Australian Water Safety Strategy 2030 in supporting the availability of education to the at-risk 0-4 years age group.

“Kids Alive is solely focused on educating families with young ones in this age group and the Storytime with Famous Friends is another way for us to reach more people and make our message as engaging and accessible as possible,” he said.

“We are so thankful to all of our famous Aussies who have donated their time and produced a video of themselves reading one of our books.”

Kids Alive Storytime with Famous Friends debut on Kids Alive Facebook @kids.alive.do.the.five the third Friday of every month and then can be found as replays on Kidsalive.com.au on the Kids Channel.

Kids Alive welcomes any other ‘famous friends’ who would like to help educate young children on water safety through this campaign and use their influence to make a difference.