The world’s youngest master diver went swimming with sharks at the Blue Planet Aquarium at Cheshire Oaks on Tuesday, February 18th to raise money for charity.
Twelve-year-old Charlotte Burns, from Orpington in Kent, took the plunge to raise money for Deptherapy, a charity which uses diving to rehabilitate wounded and injured servicemen and women.
In November last year, Charlotte officially became the youngster PADI master diver in the world. Master diver is the highest non-professional level in the PADI System of diver education.
In order to qualify, divers have to have passed at least eight separate courses and logged at least 50 dives. Charlotte has already completed more than 70 dives.
Blue Planet Aquarium’s James Buchanan said before Charlotte’s dive: “We’re all looking forward to welcoming Charlotte, she’s clearly a phenomenon and it will be fascinating to see how much she enjoys the opportunity to dive with three-metre-long sharks.
“The fact she is doing it for such a worthwhile and pioneering cause makes it even more special.”
Deptherapy is a revolutionary approach to rehabilitation using scuba diving as a therapeutic medium to help both wounded service personnel and the general public who suffer from various types of injuries and disabilities.
The programme is the brainchild of Fraser Bathgate, from Edinburgh, who has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of 23.
The long-term aim of the Deptherapy Foundation is to finance and organise regular therapeutic trips to warm water scuba-diving venues for former servicemen and servicewomen who will benefit from the unique and successful qualities of the Deptherapy Programme.
For more information on Deptherapy, visit www.deptherapy.co.uk .
