A GRIEVING mother has revealed how she begged her teenage son not to swim in a local quarry hours before he died in a tombstoning accident.
Cameron Lancaster died last summer aged 18 after diving from a sheer cliff-face into the deep waters of Preston Hill Quarry in Inverkeithing, Fife.
He was swimming in the area with friends, and made the leap as a part of the ice-bucket challenge charity craze sweeping the nation at the time.
His mother, Gillian Barclay, yesterday spoke at Cameron's old school in a bid to prevent further tragedies.
Cameron's death, on August 25, 2014, was followed this summer by the drowning another local teenager in the same flooded quarry.
Recalling the day her son died, Ms Barclay said: "I guessed that morning what he was going to do.
"I remember running out and telling him not to do it, and not to go but he said, 'don't worry mum I've done it loads of times before'."
She explained that the death of 18-year-old John McKay in the same quarry, this June, had brought back much of the pain and trauma of her own son's death.
She said: "I found the day of John's death particularly difficult to deal with as it brought back all of my previous memories.
"I remember on the day of Cameron's death I was cutting the grass and the police came to tell me something had happened.
"But they couldn't confirm that he had died as they hadn't found a body yet. His sister was hysterical with not knowing, and I kept expecting him to pop his head around and be alright.
"They didn't confirm his death until four hours later at 9pm."
Ms Barclay was speaking before she was due to take to the stage at Inverkeithing High School, less than two miles away from where her son died.
She wanted to get across the message that it is not worth risking a life for an adrenaline rush and the chance to impress friends.
She said: "I think people of his age are just more interested in impressing their friends than listening to their family.
"No matter what I say there will always be that drive to impress your friends.
"What I would say however is that when something like this happens it's a death sentence for the family.
"People also need to understand the wider impact that an event like this can have on people.
"I know a number of Cameron's friends who have dropped out of university because of his death.
"On the eve of the anniversary of his death we had a big bonfire to which 60 or 70 people came and it does make you realise the wide impact something like this can have."
Inspector Tom Barrett, a Police Scotland representative also making a speech at the school, added: "We're not trying to discourage people from using water, but they should understand that there are stretches of water where temperatures are too dangerous and can put your life at risk.
"Were something to happen it's a life sentence for the family involved.
"You have to consider that before taking that step."
Four hundred people die in Britain each year jumping into dangerous waters, with most incidents taking place in Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here