Heartbroken teen cuddles sweetheart before his life support is switched off

Dressed in a blue top and checked bottoms, heartbroken Stephanie Ray cuddles her sweetheart in hospital before his life support is turned off.

The picture is both devastating and beautiful, for it captures the love between the brave 15-year-old and her boyfriend, Blake Ward, 16.

Stephanie remained by Blake’s side, refusing to leave him, after he got into difficulty swimming in the sea in Wales last Tuesday.

And in one final goodbye to her boyfriend, she climbed into his hospital bed and lay underneath one of his arms.

She posted the moving snap on her Facebook page, showing her hugging the teenager before his life support was removed.


She wrote on Saturday: "Today has been the hardest day for me and it will be a day I will never be able to forget. As some of you may know Blake was involved in a terrible accident on Tuesday.

"I have been by his side through it all and I haven’t left him.

"As you all know Blake was a loving a caring person and would do anything for anyone.

"We was told yesterday that Blake would never recover and his brain was to damaged and we had to make the hard decision of turning his machine off and let him go."

Stephanie went on to say how Blake had recently become part of her family, describing him as a "beautiful, brave, kind-hearted" boy.

She added: "Blake was someone special to me and we had something special and we will always have that.

"Me and Blake had our ups and downs but we always got through them.

"But just know Blake wasn’t in any pain and he passed away with his family around him and he will forever be missed and he will always have a special place in my heart and I will never forget you Blake fly high my baby boy and I’m gonna make you proud love you and I always will".

Stephanie’s mum Becky told Mirror Online her daughter turns 16 next month – the same age Blake was when he died.

Blake was one of three teenagers pulled from the water in Tywyn, Gwynedd in north west Wales, Cambrian News reports.

The teenager, from Dudley in the West Midlands, was flown to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, Merseyside.

On Saturday morning, the difficult decision was made to turn off his life support. The condition of the other two teenagers is not known.

Taking to Facebook that day, Becky wrote: "Blake, our beautiful, brave, kind-hearted, clever boy sadly passed away at 7.03 this morning.

"Even though he hadn’t been part of our family for long his loss has left us beyond devastated and heartbroken.

"Sleep tight sweet angel you truly were too good for this world.

"We will never forget you."

Stephanie’s mum later added: "Can someone please wake me up & tell me it’s all a bad dream. Please I beg."

Two helicopters, three lifeboats, two coastguard teams, paramedics and police were called to the seafront on Tuesday.

Following the incident, the RNLI spoke about how they rescued the group after they got into difficulty “On the rocks at Tywyn promenade”.

On Saturday morning, the coastguard did a flypast during the Caderman event in Tywyn and a minute’s silence was held.

Blake’s headmistress at Hillcrest School and Community College in Netheron also paid tribute to the student, reports the Dudley News .

April Garratt said: "Blake was a wonderful young man, his teachers would say of him that he was bright, funny and kind-hearted.

"It’s such a tragedy when a young life is taken especially in these circumstances.

"Our thoughts are with Blake’s family and friends and the school will do all it can to support them and out students."

  • Blake’s loved ones have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his funeral. You can view the page here.

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