LOCALLY, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is seeking budding lifeguards to launch their lifesaving careers on some of Wales’ most popular beaches.

The RNLI are recruiting beach lifesavers ahead of the 2025 season. Recruitment for this season’s lifeguard team has started nationally in preparation for providing local authorities and landowners with the service they request to keep beachgoers safe this summer. Recruitment is still open for positions in North Pembrokeshire.

The charity’s lifeguards not only rescue those in difficulty in the water, they also provide vital beach first-aid and safety advice to ensure visitors can return home safely. In 2023, RNLI lifeguards in West Wales provided patrols and responded to more than 753 incidents, helping more than 1,148 people in need, saving seven lives.

Last summer, lifeguards rescued stricken swimmers from powerful rip currents, saved children being blown offshore in inflatables, came to the aid of paddleboarders and gave lifesaving CPR on beaches among the thousands of incidents they attended.

Successful applicants will receive world-class lifesaving training, enjoy good rates of pay, the possibility of flexible working patterns and develop valuable skills for a future career.

Stuart Penfold Lead Lifeguard Supervisor for North Pembrokeshire said:

‘Being a beach lifeguard is great. Although the job can be very challenging at times, you get the chance to work alongside some incredible people, receive great training, be outdoors and most importantly, make a real difference to people’s lives.

‘The role is well suited to outgoing individuals, confident swimmers and those who are passionate about helping people. This year our lifeguard team will be patrolling Poppit Sands, Newport Sands, Whitesands, Newgale, Nolton Haven and Broad Haven.’

‘To apply to join North Pembrokeshire’s Lifeguard Team visit: Lifeguards: Haverfordwest North – Poppit Sands to Broadhaven’

Lee Fisher, Lifeguard Experience Manager said: ‘Beach lifeguarding is a great opportunity and a very rewarding role that changes lives – including your own – all whilst enjoying the beach as your office.

‘Our lifeguards range from teenagers all the way up to lifesavers in their 70s, as long as you meet the fitness requirements and you are over 16 years old, there could be a role for you.

‘The job also has great paths for progression – we have lifeguards who have been working for the RNLI for years, both on the beach and as part of our support teams, and the skills you gain can make an ideal first step towards many careers. It’s a great opportunity whether you want a rewarding summer job or to pursue a career in lifesaving.’

To find lifeguard vacancies in your area visit: Find a job (rnli.org)

SOME of the images that Ben Giles has confronted over the past three decades have been stomach-churning.

He’s seen the brutality of murders, corpses left to rot for weeks on end, young children who have been mauled to death by dogs, victims of fatal car crashes, and an ever-increasing number of tragic suicides.

As he tackled each new scene as founder and director of Ultima Cleaning, Ben’s sole focus was on ensuring that the job was executed professionally. But it was only when he began working on his recently published book The Life of a Crime Scene Cleaner, that the true extent of those harrowing experiences began to hit home.

“Arriving at a crime scene, my main drive was to get the job done properly, but this meant not really thinking about what had happened,” Ben told The Pembrokeshire Herald.

“It was only when I began working on the book and started going over some of the scenes I’d confronted that I began to realise what some of those families had gone through.

“Yes, some of the things I’ve seen have been horrific.”

One image that will never leave Ben is that of a middle-aged woman who had been bludgeoned to death by her husband at their home in Birmingham.

“It made me realise that people sometimes die in ways that we don’t think possible,” he said. “I’d recently got married, and I just couldn’t accept how anything like this could happen between a husband and his wife.”

The woman had survived for three days on the kitchen floor but sadly died as she was being taken to hospital by ambulance. The entire room in which she’d been murdered was covered by a fine mist of blood, and bloody handprints and fingerprints were all over the kitchen units. The drawers had blood inside them and their runners, while the washing machine had so much blood on it that it had seeped into the door and into the seal.

“In a few hours, we’d completely cleaned the room and were travelling back home to our own wives and families. But the emotion that we were all feeling as a team will never leave me.”

Dealing with the unimaginable

On another occasion, Ben and his team were asked to attend a property in Penrhiwllan, near Newcastle Emlyn, where a man had lain dead for eight weeks.

“The smell was horrendous,” recalls Ben. “His face and legs had been eaten by his dog, and the man had begun decomposing through the carpet. His body fat had gone into the concrete. There were swarms of bluebottles everywhere.

“This was one of the very first biohazard cleaning jobs I’d ever done, so obviously the expectations were considerable. And in those days, we didn’t have Google to refer to, so it was a question of using our own knowledge and initiative to ensure the job was done well.”

Building a business from scratch

In many ways, this strong sense of self-belief has been the undercurrent of Ben’s life journey.

He left school at the age of 16 with a handful of GCSEs and no inclination to pursue further education.

“I knew I wanted to carry on living here in west Wales but I also knew that the qualifications I had weren’t going to get me the job or the salary I wanted,” explains Ben.

And so he set up his own window cleaning business.

“I managed to make a success of it,” he explains. “By the time I was 17, I was earning more money than my schoolteachers, and when I was 18, I was able to buy my first house and car.”

That same year, Ben decided to diversify into different methods of cleaning, focusing on offices and schools. By the time he was 23, he had a workforce of 20 people.

His first job came courtesy of a client who worked with the Aberystwyth branch of Age Concern.

“She told me that a warden-assisted flat hadn’t been cleaned for ten years. The bath was full to the brim with human faeces, as was the toilet, and the place was crawling with flies. Both the flats on either side were empty because of the smell.

“We cleaned the property that same day for a fee of £2,000, and I knew that by deodorising it and doing everything possible to clean it, we’d created an opportunity for the other flats to be let out too.”

A business built on expertise

Under Ben’s directorship, Ultima has been split into three categories:

• Ultima Cleaning, specialising in crime scene and biohazard cleaning;
• Ultima Academy, which offers specialist biohazard training to organisations such as police and prison officers, British Aerospace, and immigration officers;
• Ultima’s Environmental Network, facilitated by some 400 operatives throughout the UK.

The company has also worked closely with leading pharmaceutical companies to develop pioneering cleaning materials for severe cleanup operations, while a mental health specialist is always on hand to support any staff members affected by their work.

Ultima remains the sole British company that can offer a two-hour call-out, operating from its centre in Newport, Gwent.

Selling Ultima Cleaning

In 2022, Ben made the difficult decision to sell Ultima Cleaning.

“When COVID hit, I was going to bed at 3am and waking up at 6, when there’d be 20 jobs already in, waiting to be sanitised. We were absolutely everywhere, and it nearly exhausted me and the team.

“So I suppose it was this that made me take stock of where I am today.

“Over the years, it’s become obvious that people love hearing about the work we do as loads of people love crime, and the most popular question I get asked has to be ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve ever had to clean up?’

“But people are also interested in my own personal journey.

“And this is why I decided to write the book. OK, so I’m a much better cleaner than I am a writer, but I’ve always kept a diary of my jobs, and this has helped me to select between 30 and 40 of the most interesting ones for the book.

“At the end of the day, I’m a normal guy from Cardigan who’s worked hard, who’s had a firm belief in everything I’ve done, and who’s succeeded.

“But the business has made me appreciate my life, my family, the wonderful people around me, and my home near Cardigan.

“Ultima has taught me a great deal about life, but perhaps the greatest thing is to forget the word ‘no’. If I’d said no to so many of those jobs over the years, there’s no way I’d be where I am today.”

The Life of a Crime Scene Cleaner is available from Amazon on Kindle (£7.99) and paperback (£15.99).

A MOTHER accused of murdering her son and attempting to kill her father is set to appear in court next month.

Karolina Zurawska, 41, of Cwm Du Close, Gendros, Swansea, is charged with the murder of her six-year-old son, Alexander Zurawski, whose body was discovered at a property in Swansea in August last year. She is also accused of attempting to murder her father, 67-year-old Krzysztof Siwi, on the same occasion.

Zurawska was due to appear at Swansea Crown Court on Monday but was not produced from custody. A plea hearing has now been scheduled for March 3. She remains in custody.

Following Alexander’s death, his family described him as a “very kind child”. They said: “Alexander was always well-behaved and never naughty. He was very clever and very mature for his age. He had great understanding of facts. Alexander was always helpful, always eager to assist with cooking and cleaning.

“Alexander spoke both English and Polish and would often correct his parents with their English if they got words wrong. He was amazing.”