Last year RNLI-employed beach-based lifeguards: ‘aided 9,505 people, but also performed 573,192 preventative actions, including safety warnings and advice on local hazards, which will have prevented many more incidents.’

This is stirring stuff, but I have been asked what on earth was meant by a ‘preventative action’? I asked Kelly Keating, acting Beach Safety Manager for the RNLI.

She told me: ‘It is moving the red and yellow flags, assessing the beach, telling people not to go swimming… all the day-to-day minor but essential things apart from First Aid or actual rescue.’

The reader also asked me: ‘Who is counting these preventative actions?’

Kelly told me: ‘The lifeguards, they fill in a daily log.’

Nice work if you can get it.