As told by Mark Morgan of Brentwood, Essex, UK , proud father of Reiss Morgan, age 15.
Reiss was a very active sporty child like many boys his age. He played tennis, football, was a keen coarse fisher and a very competent swimmer. He regularly swam at the tennis club, and I had no fear at all of Reiss in water. He was always in the water and had a love for it (yeah I know a lot of people say that) but he loved the sea, wildlife, fishing and all.
On the night of July 30, 2009, Reiss and I had been shopping for his mother's birthday present (next day) and at the last minute we had a change of plans. Reiss was in the Air Cadets and was due to go that evening, but instead he phoned his mum to ask if he could come with me to the club for a swim. We went home and Reiss put his mother's present and card under his bed and got his swimming gear. At the club I went for a workout upstairs and Reiss went to the pool. I came down from the gym to simply check on him at about 7:15pm and he saw me and waved through the viewing window (he was talking to the female assistant.) About 15 minutes passed and as I came down into the viewing area the alarms were going and I could see they were trying to resuscitate my son poolside.
A doctor was at the club at the time but he couldn't bring Reiss back.
Unbelievably there were a few adults in the pool at the time of Reiss' drowning. At the inquest it came out that Reiss said to one of them "Do you know how long I can hold my breath for?" to which the man's reply was "I don't care. " Also, Reiss had been seen hyperventilating.
When we buried Reiss we chose to put him near his school where you can hear the children playing during the daytime.