Tom Mecrow

Tom Mecrow is a researcher and practitioner on drowning prevention, with an interest in the social barriers to public health programming in low-income settings.

Tom has over 10 years professional experience in developing, monitoring and evaluating drowning prevention activities in low- and middle-income settings, with specific experience of survival swimming, rescue and resuscitation programming.

Academically, Tom holds a master’s degree in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (focusing his thesis on the global epidemiology of drowning), a Bachelors (Hons) degree in Geography from Loughborough University, UK, and has a QCF Level 5 teaching qualification from the University of Cambridge. He has completed further professional training in Monitoring and Evaluation Processes, Risk Assessment, Child Protection and Project Management. Relevant vocational qualifications include STA Level 2 Swimming Instructor and Advanced Swift Water Rescue Technician.

In his current role as International Programmes Manager at the RNLI, Tom manages the development and implementation of drowning prevention projects in Ghana and Tanzania, which includes the delivery of survival swimming and rescue skills to children in low-resource areas. Tom is the RNLI’s subject matter expert on Survival Swimming and Chairs a sector specific international working group exploring common practice for survival swimming programme implementation. Previous responsibilities include developing and piloting the RNLI’s beach safety programme in Bangladesh.

Prior to joining the RNLI Tom worked as an embedded Research Fellow at the Centre for Injury Prevention in Bangladesh (CIPRB) 2011- 2012. Tom’s work included: leading the evaluation of the change in children’s risk-taking behaviour following a course of survival swimming lessons; analysing data on the protective effect of teaching children water rescue; developing curriculum for a drowning focused Community First Responder training programme and determining the feasibility of large-scale implementation in rural Bangladesh.

As a drowning prevention consultant, Tom has worked as a technical expert for SPEEDO/International Inspiration on the implementation of survival swimming programmes in Kerala and Bangalore, India.

He co-founded and is a trustee of the Nile Swimmers drowning prevention organisation in Sudan (2007-ongoing), which continues to be an innovative and grassroots led organisation, and chaired the Community and Organisational Development Committee of the Royal Lifesaving Society Commonwealth (2012-13).

Tom has authored peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters on his work, which have contributed significantly to the drowning prevention evidence base. He was a technical reviewer of the WHO Prevention Drowning: An Implementation Guide, and from 2018 to present has provided technical input on injury prevention to the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS).

In his spare time, Tom enjoys unusual aquatic sports (including under-water hockey – at international level), and planning for the next travel adventure with his wife and child.