Mother of Scottish toddler who tragically drowned in pool shares her suffering to raise awareness of water safety

For the little girl they named Darcey Elizabeth Sunshine, the water was the place where she was happiest. That's where she beamed.

And yet it was the water – in which Darcey Doig had spent so many fun and carefree hours – that was responsible for the three-year-old’s tragic death.

On Valentine's Day 2020 – two years after Darcey's parents moved from Glasgow to South Africa to enable their children to live a “barefoot” lifestyle – a tragedy occurred in the family swimming pool that had devastating, irreversible effects on everyone who loved them.

Although Kirsty Doig will never get over the loss of her daughter to drowning, she is now at the forefront of a global campaign that is Darcey's legacy – an international foundation that brings more sunshine into children's lives through survival swimming lessons, water safety education and nutrition.

In 2016, when Kirsty was due to give birth to her second child, she told her excited four-year-old son, Hunter, that he could name his little sister.

“He wanted to name her Sunshine,” Kirsty remembers. “We didn’t expect that.”

Given a typical, dreary April day in the city of Glasgow, Kirsty thought, she could safely make a pact with her son.

Hunter's parents agreed that if the baby was born on a sunny day, his wish would come true. They didn't believe the odds would be in his favor.

“It turned out to be the sunniest day of the year. I was at Southern General and it was so hot,” said Kirsty, 40, who gave her daughter the middle names Elizabeth, after her grandmother, and Sunshine, Hunter's choice.

“Everyone thought we were joking until they saw her passport – and there it was.”

Just two months before Darcey's fourth birthday, relatives from Scotland visited the Doigs at their villa in South Africa.

Kirsty, a mother of three, remembers: It was a beautiful February afternoon and the children were cooling off in the pool after spending the day playing outside together.

Waiting for her friends to arrive for a barbecue, she prepared food in the kitchen while the adults sat by the pool and watched the kids having fun in the water.

While jumping into the pool, two of the older children accidentally hit their heads, causing one of their noses to burst.

The accident – ​​and the resulting blood, tears and comfort – provided a brief moment of distraction, as no one noticed that good little swimmer Darcey was missing.

Kirsty, whose younger son Lachlann was just about to turn two at the time, said: “By the time we found her, it was just too late.”

In the 40 minutes before an ambulance finally arrived at the scene, desperate family members tried to resuscitate the three-year-old. Tragically, their efforts to resuscitate her were in vain.

In the face of unimaginable grief, the swimming pool, which Kirsty said was “a huge part of our children’s lives and Darcey’s happiest place,” was emptied and covered with a tarpaulin.

When lockdowns were imposed on several continents just three weeks after Darcey's loss, the restrictions meant that neither family nor friends of the Doigs could travel from Scotland to support them in their grief.

On Darcey's fourth birthday, Kirsty and her friends in South Africa put all their energy into setting up the Sunshine Sandwich Project – an initiative where they made thousands of sandwiches and distributed them, along with fruit, to the children of some of the community's poorest families.

When her daughter's coach at Jo Jo's Swimming Academy suggested that she could make another lasting contribution to the community by teaching children to swim, Kirsty was deeply touched: Darcey had completed the swimming lessons she loved so much with flying colors and had still drowned.

But when the coach suggested taking an educational approach to water safety, it was an “aha moment” for strong swimmer Kirsty – the birth of an idea that would enable children to learn about water, the dangers associated with it and how to recognize them.

“The water has so many incredible benefits and Darce thrived there,” she said. “When we came home from a day at daycare, we would spend hours together in the pool.”

In January 2021, the Darcey Sunshine Foundation began working with six children in one of the South African schools whose students had benefited from the Sunshine Sandwich Project.

By the end of the year, the foundation – funded largely by the Doig family and friends in Scotland – had not only taught 46 South African children to swim, but also taught them potentially life-saving water safety and survival skills.

Two and a half years later, that number is now almost 500.

“We work by building lasting partnerships between swim clubs and preschools in local communities within 15 miles of each other, teaching survival swimming and self-rescue skills from a height of at least 15 feet,” explains Kirsty.

“Many of the children we work with don't have a bathtub at home and have never been submerged. For these children, this is an incredible, transformative experience.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children should start swimming around the age of six. The foundation is therefore looking to complement its current offering by creating a youth program for seventh-graders, targeting young people aged 14 and over from poorer communities who can then pass on their swimming skills to younger children.

When the family decided to return to Scotland in December 2022 to settle between Kinross and Dollar (Perthshire), the Darcey Sunshine Foundation became a registered Scottish charity with the aim of adding the Seychelles and Mauritius to its international circle.

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The Scotland Project believes that teaching water safety should be a top priority in Scotland, which has around 125,000km of rivers and 30,000 lakes.

Kirsty continued: “In Scotland, the death rate from drowning is twice that of the rest of the UK. The majority of drowning accidents in Scotland affect men over the age of 40.

“With more and more swimming pools closing in Scotland and swimming no longer part of the curriculum in schools, I fear there could be an increase in incidents – and we are determined to prevent this.”

No one knows better than they do that the presence of an adult is no guarantee of a child's safety in or around water.

“No child is 100 percent safe around water,” says Kirsty, who – in addition to working as a training officer for the Sea Cadets in Scotland, North East England and Northern Ireland – devotes much of her time to the foundation in her daughter’s name.

“They need active supervision whether they are swimming in a pool or the ocean. There are so many other factors to consider when it comes to water, and children need to learn about water and the risks involved before they even go near the water.

“They need to be aware of the dangers when getting in and out of the water and also around the house and take precautions, such as making sure the bathtub is emptied.”

Through the foundation, Kirsty and other volunteers ensure that Darcey's short life inspires those who loved her to “be more Darcey” – to live each day boldly and spread a little sunshine.

After her loss, Darcey's middle name has become her legacy, ensuring a safer future and preventing more lives from being lost to drowning.

Each year, new swim schools sign up to help the Foundation spread sunshine and reach children from at-risk communities with its life-saving educational initiatives.

By removing financial and cultural barriers to acquiring life-sustaining education, the Darcey Sunshine Foundation seeks to prevent the countless tragic drowning accidents that occur each year and continue to spread Darcey's sunshine for years to come.

Click here to learn more and get involved.

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