Bo'ness wild swimmer's delight after being reunited with her ring lost in lagoon

Mollie Stuart, from Bo’ness, had been swimming at the Avon Lagoon in Linlithgow Bridge on March 14 with her friend Alice Langman when her wedding ring slipped off while she was in the water.

The 23-year-old, who is a member of the West Lothian Dippers, said: “Alice and I decided to go for a sunset swim at the Avon Lagoon as I’m trying to acclimatise to the cold water as I am doing the cold water challenge for Sands, the stillborn and neonatal death charity.

"I didn’t realise until I let the dogs out for the night that the ring was gone. I was a mess and started crying.

"Luckily we knew roughly where it would be as we were recording the full thing on our phones – my phone was in the water with us and Alice’s phone was at the shore.

"I usually wear swim gloves in the water but Alice had been pretty cold after the last few swims so I gave them to her to wear, and so it would be easier for me to take videos. We retraced our swim and looked at our videos and realised it had come off two minutes before getting out of the water.

“I messaged our swim group chat as soon as I realised and a bunch of them organised to come out the next morning to have a look for it. I also posted on two local Facebook groups to see if anyone could let me borrow a waterproof metal detector.”

A flat tyre stopped Mollie joining the group from the West Lothian Dippers as they searched the water the following day.

"Unfortunately they couldn’t find it as the reeds at the bottom were starting to grow,” she said.

"On the Wednesday afternoon a man called Frankie contacted me as he had an underwater metal detector that I could borrow to have a look for it, he showed me how to use it. That night a man called Colin Todd Irvine messaged me and said he would have a look for it if I was up for it.

"After an hour of searching with Alice and Frankie on the Thursday we still couldn’t find it The water was very cold and it was hard for us to keep our head under the water long enough to dive down. We managed to find a nail and an aluminium can though.

"I was a bit disappointed as we spent a long time in the water having a look and it was freezing and rainy. I messaged Colin back and asked if he was free on the Friday to have a look. He was.”

Mollie and Alice headed to the lagoon on the Friday to meet ‘Toddy’, who owns Scuba Ts at Mill Road Industrial Estate in Linlithgow and runs Metal Detecting Scotland, and his wife.

Mollie, a student learning disability nurse, continued: “He noted that visibility was very poor due to the reeds which had noticeably grown since the day before. After an hour and a half he came up and said he’d found it.

"I again started crying and went into the water and gave him a hug and a lot of thanks. I was so ecstatic and called my husband who was at work to tell him. He was so happy too.”

Mollie had been given the ring by her grandma, who lives on the Isle of Lewis, and it has a sentimental value to her.

She said: “It’s actually quite funny because my grandma lost the same ring in the late 1970s in Spain, but found it a few weeks later in her swim bag not realising she had taken it off.

"She has said the ring must be charmed as we both have lost it while swimming.”

Mollie says she will “definitely be taking it off before swimming now and leaving it in the house!”