A mum has spoken out about the tragic moment a search and rescue team found her teenage son's lifeless body after he drowned in a reservoir in Wales.
Reuben Morgan was just 15-years-old when he drowned in a reservoir after suffering cold water shock. His mum, Maxine Johnson, described him as a strong, fit and healthy boy.
"He thought he was invincible," she told Wales Online. "He was 15 when he went and he has been gone as long as he was alive."
Reuben had spent the night camping with some friends near Pontsticill Reservoir near Merthyr Tydfil in 2006 when he and a few others decided to swim across the water.
But the cold and deep waters were too much for Reuben, and he ended up getting in trouble after suffering from cold water shock. It took rescuers three days to find his body in the massive depths of the water.
Maxine said: "He was missing for three days in the water, the diving team couldn't find him, they could not pinpoint where he was.
"We stayed there for three days while the search and rescue took place and he was found. And when they did find him on the Monday so many children were walking up to the reservoir from the school, they were so upset and shocked.
"It was traumatic for a lot of them.
"Finding him was the validation that it actually happened, it was the most terrible moment of my life.
"I felt so naïve, I just didn't think he would go into the water, on the day, when I was told, I had a phone call that he had gone missing, even then I didn't know, I didn't realise that they meant that he was in the water.
"The first thing that came to my head was he thought he was invincible. He was a strong and fit boy, I would never have thought it would be him," said Maxine, 56, who still lives in Merthyr Tydfil.
With 15 years having passed, for Maxine, the grief and trauma is still immense, and she is raising awareness of a Welsh Water campaign not to swim in reservoirs as she does not want what happened to her family to happen to anyone else.
She said: "It is a strange feeling really. When I hear new music I realise he wouldn't have heard it and music I hear he would have brings back memories.
"I attended a training workshop recently, and we were asked to bring something special to us. I was thinking about Reuben and I picked up a blue ornament that I have got that was in the house when he was alive and I have always kept it. It is a bit out of place, but that is something he would have seen and touched.
"You think about what he would be doing now, would he have children, would he have gone abroad, he wanted to travel. You think of the things you have missed."
Maxine said the last year has been particularly triggering with schools being closed as she has been worried they were missing out on vital education about water safety.
She also said she noticed an increase locally of young people swimming in the reservoir again, with the hot weather we had in 2020.
She added: "We knew that people were swimming in the reservoir and that was a worry. I thought this is going to escalate and I was really worried and I still am. There are more staycations this year you will see more people going into the water.
"I know people want to go out and enjoy themselves but you just feel a bit angry when you see it. It is perfectly natural to want to go for a swim on a hot day, but reservoirs are not safe to swim, they are dangerous and it is illegal.
"I never thought it would be me or my family, what happened to Reuben is a tragedy and you think that is absolutely terrible, but it still doesn't affect you until something like that happens to you."
