A young girl heroically pushed her sister up out of the water to safety before losing her life in a deep man-made lake, her grieving mum said.
Nicole Sanders, 13, was standing in the shallows of Ducklington Lake in Witney, Oxfordshire holding her 10-year-old sister Teagan's and another friend's hand when the floor suddenly collapsed beneath them both, witnesses described.
The teenager desperately fought to keep herself and Teagan's heads above the water, using her small body and limited power to keep the younger girl afloat, her mum told the Mirror.
While adults on the bank were able to help save Teagan and the other child, Nikki slipped beneath the water during the tragic incident in July.
Friends at the lake later told her mum Amanda that it took 25 minutes for the girl to be found, perched on a ledge 30 feet below the surface of the water.
She was pronounced dead in hospital later that day.
Nikki's death, which came amid a series of UK drownings, left her family and friends heartbroken and Amanda fighting for change.
The devastated mum is determined to have what she calls the "extremely deep and deadly" Duckington Lake shut off or filled in in memory of her daughter, despite meeting public opposition.
"Teagan is very much of the impression that Niki sacrificed her life for hers," Amanda said.
"She just wanted to keep Teagan up. It shows much about the person she was. Everyone likes to think they'd do this and that, but you don't know."
Ducklington Lake is a flooded gravel pit dug initially to extract material for the A40 Witney bypass in the mid-1980s.
Despite signs warning the public about the dangers of its waters, it is a hugely popular spot for a dip on hot summer days.
Before she hugged her daughters goodbye and sent them away with some adult friends on the morning of July 18, Amanda told them only to paddle and not to swim.
"I told them just to kick about a bit, and that's all they were doing," she continued.
"They were not far from the bank itself when it happened."
According to friends of Amanda's who were watching the girls, the floor of the lake suddenly collapsed.
She said: "The floor went, it crumbled away beneath her. All three of them went down into the water.
"Niki managed to get to Teagan and was pushing her up so her head kept coming out of the water, she did that for a while until they got Teagan out.
"Because the edge broke off it threw her into a current. She got pulled by that as she went down.
"It can be very difficult for an adult, let alone a child, to get out."
Amanda first knew something terrible had happened when she received a call from one of her friends, who explained through tears that she couldn't find Niki.
When emergency service personnel eventually found the teenager they moved her to a nearby field for treatment.
While the cause of her death will not officially be known until an inquest later this year, Amanda has been told her lungs were filled with water and that she suffered a cardiac arrest.
Niki was one of the people who lost their lives during a particularly deadly period for drownings this year.
Earlier this summer the Chair of the National Water Safety Forum, Dawn Whittaker, said that around 40 people died during the heatwave in the latter half of July - triple the normal rate of death.
Whether the year as a whole has been particularly deadly for water deaths will not be known until the group publishes its annual drowning figures in spring next year.
The driving forces behind such figures - whether they be connected to the rise of wild swimming or pools closed due to Covid - will take even longer to work out.
Amanda's campaign to have the lake filled in has not been universally popular among her local community, with many arguing that a small number of tragedies should not determine the actions of a majority.
"The older generation don't want the place touched," she said. "This is the least I can do, it is what she would have wanted."
At least for now, it seems that Amanda's drive to have the lake filled in and trees and flowers planted on top will not come to pass.
Witney Town Council has said that its priority is educating people on the hidden dangers of water through schools and rescue services, rather than removing access to swimming spots.
"Hopefully, this will ensure that as many people as possible are aware of the dangers, even to experienced and confident swimmers, and choose safe swimming and water play options instead," a spokesperson for the council said.
They added that Niki's family have been invited to meet with councillors, signs have been added to the lake and the council is "actively reviewing its risk assessment and health and safety" via an independent audit.
They continued: "As part of our longer-term approach, we will also be looking at the viability of introducing a lido to Witney to provide a safe outdoor swimming space for our town, including talking to other levels of local government to assess how this may best be facilitated, if considered feasible.
"The hearts of the community, including every single person who works at or represents the Council are with the family at what must be an unthinkably distressing and painful time, and we do hope to work together so we can all feel confident that any further loss of life in open water is prevented.”
They noted that swimming is the lake is not permitted by the council.
