MARSA SHAGRA, Egypt (20 May 2009) — A courageous deep sea diver who died trying to rescue a friend off the coast of Egypt has been hailed as a hero. Dr Ahmed Ghalib, a former Eccleston Lane Ends pupil, became the second St Helens diver to lose his life in the Red Sea in the space of seven months following the tragedy near the resort of Marsa Shagra. The 32-year-old, who specialised in treating diving-related illnesses and was due to get married in February, was reported missing after attempting to rescue Danish diving buddy Ulf Foss about 100 metres south of Marsa Shagra's outer house reef. A third diver, Slovenian man Ales Laharnar, was the only one to make it to the surface. According to Mr Laharnar, Ahmed, an experienced deep sea diver, had tried to rescue Mr Foss when he lost conciousness and started descending too fast. The tragedy occurred just months after St Helens father-of-three Alan Costello, 52, who owned Derbyshire chemists in Fingerpost, lost his life in a dive off Hurghada - about 200 miles north of Marsa Shagra. A specialist diving team from the UK finally recovered Mr Costello's body from the Rosalie Moller shipwreck earlier this year after he failed to resurface following a dive on May 22 last year. A website set up by Ahmed's family in his memory describes him as "a hero by any standard". Dr Ghalib died on Boxing Day last year but his parents have only just chosen to speak out about their son's sons death. His parents Dr Hany Nasr and Dr Yezi Hasan - who both used to run an NHS surgery in Prescot - said Ahmed, who was born at Whiston Hospital and spent his childhood living in St Helens and Saudi Arabia, loved diving in the Red Sea. | | Dr. Ahmed Ghalib, 32, who specialized in treating diving related illnesses, died attempting to save the life of another scuba diver in the Red Sea. They said: "During his time in Egypt, Ahmed fell in love with the country's open deserts and the Red Sea. Ahmed was a superb diver and attained the level of Master of Diving having completed over 200 dives. He also achieved a qualification as a rescue diver. "After finishing his degree in medicine in 2007 he completed his pre-registration year at Ein Shams University Hospital in Cairo and last November began his career as a Hyperbaric Chamber Doctor - specialising in diving-related illnesses." by Chris Amery |
