A Co Tyrone mother-of-three has described the dramatic moment her nine-year-old autistic child jumped into Lough Neagh and saved the life of a teenager who was struggling in the water.
Joanne Montague, known on social media as the 'Swimming Mammy', has now urged the public to beware the dangers of open water swimming during the warm weather.
The incident happened at an area on the coast of the Lough known locally as 'the battery'.
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Speaking to Belfast Live, she said: "We had been staying down at the battery for more than a week. I have a wee camper van so I took the kids down - we only live ten minutes' from it. I was taking the kids to school in the morning and they were coming back in the evening to go paddle boarding and swimming, the weather was class, and it was brilliant. On Sunday, some of my swimming buddies - the 'battery boys' - were down and the kids were all playing.
"The kids like to jump in from the marina side. Over the course of the past two years they've built up their confidence from non-swimmers to swimmers, from wearing life jackets to not having to wear life jackets. They were jumping in, having the craic as children do in the nice weather.
"My children are six, nine and eleven. My children all have additional needs as well."
She continued: "So they were down in the afternoon carrying on, and these teenagers came down. If you known Moortown at all you'll know there's a lot of houses around it. A lot of the school children would come down at the weekend.
"These girls came down at the weekend and sat at the Marina. I was one of the only adults actually sitting out on the grass directly watching them. Two of these girls jumped in. One was a wee blondie-haired girl and one was a wee dark haired girl. The wee dark haired girl started going under, and tried to grab on to the wee blondie haired girl who then started going under.
"The blondie haired girl managed to get onto the ladder but the dark haired girl had one hand up in the air and she was taking in water. Her head was disappearing. She went down three times.
"I jumped up. I was about, say 70 or 100 metres away. Not far but far enough that that child was going to go under and she wasn't going to come back up again. So I started running and heard this splash."
Her nine-year-old daughter Emily, who has autism spectrum disorder and attention deficity and hyperactivity disorder, had jumped in to rescue the floundering teenager.
"She had pushed the girl over to the ladder, to safety," Joanne said. "The girl came out and obviously we checked to see if she was okay. She had got the shock of her life, she was absolutely terrified. I never witnessed that before and never do I want to again."
The 'Swimming Mammy' is now putting on swimming lessons to people in the local area, with the people behind local water park 'Splash' in Moneymore offering use of their facilities free of charge.
She said: "I actually retrained two years ago as an open water swimming coach. I couldn't get swimming lessons for my kids because they're like hen's teeth in Mid Ulster.
"I also trained as an autism swim coach, which can incorporate obviously neurodiverse children as well. That's what I did with my own children and they've come a long way with regards to their ability in the water, their ability to save themselves."
Joanne added: "People need to know the dangers. If there's one thing people need to learn it's how to 'float to live'."
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