Teen Was Forbidden from Going to River Because He Couldn’t Swim. He Drowned After Jumping in with Friends

A 15-year-old boy who did not know how to swim tragically drowned after jumping into the River Wyre in Lancashire, according to the coroner’s office.

Lotus Bowker died following the incident on May 17, as determined by Emma Mather, the area coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, during a hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Mather explained that Bowker’s “development learning delay” affected his communication skills and his ability to assess risks, factors that “probably contributed to his death,” according to the inquest record shared with PEOPLE. The teenager passed away the following day at a children’s hospital in Manchester.

“What started off as an ordinary day quickly turned into an unimaginable nightmare, and now family and friends are grieving the loss of a beautiful, bright and kind-hearted soul taken way too soon,” a family friend wrote on a GoFundMe page organized to help with funeral expenses.

On the day of the tragedy, Bowker went to the River Wyre near a cricket club in Garstang with friends, despite his parents, Andromeda and David, forbidding him from swimming there, the Lancashire Post reported. While he could “doggy paddle,” Bowker was not a confident swimmer, and his learning disability often led him to copy the actions of his peers, the couple said during the hearing.

David recalled seeing his son before the incident, when the teen mentioned “going swimming.” The father assumed the group was heading to a pool facility, according to the report.

Instead, witnesses later saw Lotus, already wet, jump into the river again. The coroner concluded that he “got into difficulty in the river where he was submerged for an unknown length of time.”

Friends attempted to pull him from the water but were unsuccessful. Their cries for help drew the attention of nearby passersby, who helped retrieve the boy. A police officer and an anesthetist on the scene performed CPR until emergency services arrived, according to the paper.

Bowker was transported to a local hospital in cardiac arrest before being moved to Manchester, where he died the next day. His cause of death was determined to be drowning.

In a tribute shared with the BBC, David described his son as a “lovely boy” and urged others to stay away from open bodies of water.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” he said. “Those waters aren’t meant to be swum in. I want people, especially young ones, to think twice before visiting these dangerous places, no matter the social pressure or desire to fit in.”

In a joint message on the GoFundMe page, Lotus’ parents, sister, and four brothers paid tribute to the teen, calling him their “shining light.”

“Our beautiful boy, sadly missed by his Mummy, Daddy, his brothers and sister deeply,” the family wrote. “Words cannot describe the pain we are going through.”