Three students from South Dartmoor Community College, Ashburton, have been hailed heroes when a family afternoon by the River Dart nearly turned to tragedy for a Buckfastleigh woman and her eight-year-old son.
Louise Blackman's son Harry was playing football at Spitchwick with his friend, Reuben Johnson, when their ball fell into the river.
Harry tried to retrieve it, but he ended up stranded in the middle of the freezing water. 'Suddenly I found myself in my worst nightmare. I couldn't run fast enough,' said Ms Blackman.
With Harry waist-high in the water and grasping a broken tree branch, Ms Blackman plunged into the river, grabbed her now screaming son and lifted him on to the bank. 'I pressed him tightly to myself to warm him as best I could,' she said.
With temperatures plummeting and the light fading, Ms Blackman realised they were stuck on the wrong bank and sent Reuben to look for help. He found the three college lads playing cricket.
'When our rescuers arrived they shouted, pointed downstream and led me to a makeshift weir made from river boulders,' said Ms Blackman.
'One of the lads waded across the river and met me. "Don't let go", I shouted to him. I could feel Harry's grip become weaker and at any moment I could slip, and he, or all of us would fall into the deep dark water pool behind us.'
Safely back on shore, one of the lads told the pair to keep still and to eat something, giving them a large pack of sweets. 'He clearly knew his stuff,' said Ms Blackman.
Two adults then appeared who took Ms Blackman and Harry home.
The three 18-year-olds – Jake Chilcott and Jamie Mason from Buckfastleigh, and Peter Skinner from South Brent, have now received Easter eggs from Harry by way of a thank you.
'I really don't know what would have happened if they hadn't come to our rescue. I want to thank them all so very much,' said Ms Blackman.