73-year-old woman takes swimming lessons for the first time, decades after near-drowning

Pools in your area may be closed for the season, but that doesn't prevent drownings from happening all year long. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 10 people die each day due to unintentional drowning.

The American Red Cross says about 80% of adults claim to know how to be able to swim but more than half also admit they’d fail a basic swimming test.

A pilot program at the YMCA of the Greater Charlotte area is helping swimmers like Teresa Young, a 73-year-old woman who had a traumatic swimming incident decades earlier.

Years ago, she couldn't imagine swimming by herself in a pool.

"I stayed at a Marriott, the Marriott Hotel in Russia. It did not have lifeguard or the markers of how deep the pool was and I jumped in and I had a near drowning experience," she said.

According to Cindy Terry, YMCA Swim Lesson Coordinator at Johnston and Simmons YMCA, Mecklenburg County has the highest number of drowning deaths in the entire state of North Carolina.

Most of those drowning reports are children, but hundreds are adults.

"I never had swimming lessons in my life before. I'm 73 now, and I only feel comfortable when I stepped into a pool that I can touch the ground," Young said.

The new program helps people of all ages with whatever fear or trauma they have surrounding swimming or water.

"We were able to teach 15 teens and adults total and our YMCA here, and that encompass any type of trauma that they may have received as a child, any type of fear of water, not having access, any type of body image issues," Terry said.

It's not always an easy journey, but Young said she's proud she's been able to overcome her fear of water.

"I love this experience and I want to spread the word so everybody else can be not afraid to get into the water," she said.