BECKY SHEAVES

It was all I could do to hold him up in the water. The tide was on the turn. The water was turbulent and on the move. I had made a massive mistake

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MY friend lives in Budleigh Salterton and says her newsfeed sends her endless updates on the terrible loss of life there during the annual Christmas Day sea swim. “It’s like everyone wants to find a new angle on our tragedy,” she said to me the other day. People just want to be left alone to grieve.

And then three people were swept out to sea in Yorkshire. This time, they hadn't planned to swim. But a child - a youngster aged 15 - was on the steps during a stormy high tide.

She was swept into the ocean. Her mother and a passerby went in after her and all three have lost their lives.

That's five people claimed by the waters around our island in the space of ten days, all over the festive holiday period.

And much as these heartbreaking stories are individual and private tragedies, as island citizens, we all need to reconsider our relationship with our oceans.