A grieving mother has revealed how she begged her teenage son not to swim in a quarry hours before he died in a tombstoning accident.
Cameron Lancaster died last summer, aged 18, after diving from a cliff face into the waters of Preston Hill Quarry in Inverkeithing, Fife.
He was swimming in the area with friends, and made the fateful leap as a part of the ice-bucket challenge charity craze sweeping the nation at the time.
His mother, Gillian Barclay, took the brave decision to speak at Cameron’s old school on Tuesday in a bid to prevent further tragedies.
Cameron’s death, on August 25 2014, was followed this summer by the drowning of another local teenager in the same flooded quarry.
Recalling the day her son died, Gillian 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 in the same quarry this June of 18-year-old John McKay had brought back much of the pain 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.
“They didn’t confirm his death until four hours later at 9pm.”
Gillian wanted to get across the message that an adrenaline rush and impressing friends is not worth risking your life for.
She said: “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 uni because of his death.”
Inspector Tom Barrett 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.”