Four years since Hartlepool teenager died after being caught in rip current
14 year-old Matty Sherrington went missing near Steetley Pier in July 2021
It is four years today since a Hartlepool teenager died playing in the sea after being caught in a rip current.
14 year-old Matty Sherrington went missing near Steetley Pier on this day and his body was found a week later.
Jess Coles, his cousin, said: "We went and looked for him for a whole week and obviously we were just completing drained. We were heartbroken.
"It was our Matty's dad that had rang and said 'there's been an accident.' Obviously we flew straight down there, our heart were in our mouths, we didn't know what to do, think, say and then obviously we hadn't heard anything for hours. We didn't know what to do with ourselves, we really didn't.
"We knew after the first couple of days we knew that he'd gone and obviously as heartbreaking as what it was to hear that they'd found him, it was also relief to us all because we could just start planning his funeral and stuff like that. His mum still struggles to this day and his dad as well.
"The support from the community, even like the wider community, people that aren't even from County Durham, they came down to help obviously we had jet skis, we had people with drones, we had all sorts of help like it was unbelievable the help that we had.
"We've done fundraisers and we did a charity walk from Blackhall Colliery down to Steetley Pier in fancy dress because our Matty loved nothing more than being daft, so we thought fancy dress would've been ideal. He always cracked a joke and I mean his jokes were absolutely terrible but it was the way he told them. It was hilarious."