Kaddy Ceesay has issued a stark warning after her 16-year-old son Muhammad Secka drowned at Rother Valley country park in South Yorkshire during a day out with friends. She told Sky News: "It can happen to any child, it can happen to any adult."
Mum's anguish
Ceesay described the moment police arrived at her door: "I cry every day, I miss him every day. When the police came and knocked on the door, she said to me, the friend said Mohamed was last seen in the water, but he was not struggling."
She added: "I tell the police officer to take me to the lake. I was there that night and when it started to get dark and they told me maybe you should go home. If we cannot find him today, we'll continue to search for him tomorrow. I said I'm not going home. I can't go home. My child is in the water."
Danger of open water
Ceesay said Muhammad was able to swim, but the water depth suddenly dropped where he drowned. She now wants more people to understand how dangerous open water can be.
"I go through pain every day and I go through pain every night. You have a good relationship and then one day, something like this takes your child away from you, it's hard. I don't wish this to happen to anybody," she said.
Water safety campaign
The Mirror has been running a water safety campaign called 'Save Lives for Sam' since a spate of drownings hit the UK in May. The campaign is supported by the RNLI, The Royal Life Saving Society UK and dad Simon Haycock, whose 16-year-old son Sam drowned five years ago at Ulley Reservoir in Rotherham.
Simon Haycock, 56, told the Mirror: "It has been an absolutely horrendous, the sheer numbers who have lost their lives."
Inquests into other deaths
This week, inquests were opened into the deaths of two other youngsters who died during the heatwaves. A coroner heard how a seven-year-old boy drowned off an Essex beach and suffered a fatal brain injury while on holiday with his family.
Musa Ahmed died six days after getting into difficulty in the water in West Mersea on July 22. His cousin Sameeha Rahman, 15, and her mother Shelina Rahman, 41, both from Ilford in east London, also died in the incident. Musa, from Romford in Essex, was brought to shore, stabilised and then flown to the Royal London Hospital before he died on July 28, the opening of an inquest into the deaths heard on Thursday.
The hearing at Chelmsford County Hall was told the trio had been on a family holiday at the time and that post-mortem examinations had given a provisional cause of death as drowning for all three. For Musa, hypoxic ischaemic brain injury was also recorded as a provisional cause of death.
Senior coroner for Essex Lincoln Brookes said: "Clearly it is so tragic to come across any death of any individual but when three occur at the same time and of the same family, one cannot underestimate the tragic nature of such an incident." Mr Brookes offered his "deepest condolences" to the family, friends and loved ones of the victims. Essex Police previously said officers were called by the ambulance service at 5.35pm on July 22 after reports that several people had got into difficulty in the water near Seaview Avenue. The coroner adjourned the inquest to January 19, 2027.
In another hearing, an inquest heard how a 13-year-old boy who got into difficulty while swimming in the sea died from drowning. The body of Abdi Zubeir was recovered on August 5th after "an extensive search operation" off South Promenade, Hornsea. An inquest into his death was opened at East Riding and Hull Coroners service on Wednesday. The hearing was adjourned to a date which is yet to be confirmed.
