The mother of a 10-year-old girl who drowned after falling into the River Dee at a tourist spot yesterday lent her support to a river safety campaign.
Jill Skea, who lost her daughter Zoe during a family day out last year at the Linn of Quoich, features on a campaign poster giving the poignant message: "I wouldn't wish the events that followed on anyone.
"The lives of our family and friends have been changed forever. I would do anything to touch her, hold her, kiss her. All I can do is live with this empty feeling and wonder how things would be if she was still here."
Grampian Police launched the campaign at the River Dee near Banchory, where two other 10-year-old schoolgirls were rescued recently. They were saved by local hotelier Marcus Jaffrey and ghillie Walter Rait who went to their aid after they got into difficulty while surfing the river on improvised rafts - exactly one year after Zoe died.
The campaign focuses on the River Dee because it is such a popular venue for sporting and leisure activities but over the years has claimed many lives, police say.
Banchory's community police officer, PC Andy Cruickshank, said local beauty spots could be lethal.
"The bridges over the River Dee have frequently been used by people jumping into the water, an activity which can be very dangerous because of the strong currents and rocks and which has led to people being seriously injured in the past."
He added there had been an increase in rough camping by the water edge in recent years which has impacted on wildlife and the environment and they were hoping to raise awareness of all the dangers.
Speaking for the first time about the tragedy Mrs Skea said: "None of us there had realised how ferocious the water was that day, or that there was an underground cave which would trap Zoe for over six hours.
"Zoe was a strong swimmer but that didn't help her." She spoke of the "frustration and desperation" they felt as they tried in vain to pull her out of the water, the "indescribable emotions" she felt while she was missing; "seeing her when she was retrieved from the cave; seeing her in her white coffin; planning her funeral; that final goodbye on the day of her funeral; walking behind her coffin at the funeral; the feeling I get every morning when I wake up and realise this is real and that empty feeling I have to live with every day".
She added: "I would give anything to be able to touch her, hold her, kiss her. To be able to feel her, smell her, hear her and see her but all I can do is hope that no matter where she is now she can hear me tell her how much I love her, miss her and wish more than anything I could be with her."
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 hereComments are closed on this article