I've never nearly drowned, though that doesn't account for the several times in the bathtub when I've stomached a few gallons of that wonderful liquid.

Playing in a friend's backyard pool at a birthday party and one of my friends leant over me and pushed my head underwater and stayed there. She managed to hit me in the side, I gasped as a reflex and breathed in a lot of water. I then started coughing, while still being held underwater. The girl leaning over me was eventually pulled off by another friend who thought that leaning over me and pushing my head underwater probably wasn't the best place for her to be. I was coughing a lot and more concerned about getting my head up to breathe instead of trying to get to swim to an edge or get out - one of my friends ended up pulling me to the edge and helping me out. About 2 minutes after that I fainted back into the pool. No lasting damage - just a chest infection from all the water I'd breathed in and an awesome story to use when teaching water safety.

It was terrifying. The edge of the pool was just out of reach but I wasn't able to calm myself down enough to lean forward and grab the edge. My only concern was breathing - I couldn't even focus enough to tread water properly. I kicked my legs and did my best to keep my head up, but I was coughing violently and bobbing up and down. I couldn't breathe at all. Pretty much just a huge panic attack.

I was 16, I'd held a bronze medallion for more than 2 years and I was a qualified swim instructor at the time. It just goes to show that you don't have to be a non-swimmer to get into difficulties - no one should swim alone and games always need to be monitored. And about 1001 other learning points, but that's for lessons not replies!

I was 8 and when i was swiming i had a panic attack then couldent swim last i everytime i looked above water there was the life guard pointing at me and some random guy came and got me.