The holidaymaker who died after being pulled out of the sea on his first friends’ holiday was knocked off his feet by a wave in knee-deep water, his distraught sister said.
Aaron Keightley, 29, died on Monday after the tragedy at Skegness, Lincolnshire, where he had been enjoying the summer heatwave.
The labourer – pictured below on the same beach just 24 hours earlier – was taken by the current, his sister Shannon Smith said.
Ms Smith has launched an online fundraiser to help cover the costs of bringing her ‘selfless and loving’ older sibling’s body home to Leicester, as well as his funeral.
The 26-year-old told MailOnline Mr Keightley had ‘always enjoyed family holidays, but this was his first proper holiday away with friends’.
Speaking from her home in Beaumont Leys, Leicester, she added: ‘He went with two friends and they were having the best time.
‘He’d been so excited for it. He went last Friday for a week, and they’d been to the beach every day.’
Ms Smith said her brother and his friends were ‘just messing about in the waves, no more than knee deep’, when a ‘really big one’ knocked them off their feet.
Aaron Keightley pictured on Skegness beach a day before he died
Mr Keightley’s sibling, Shannon, said the family were experiencing ‘heart wrenching pain’
The labourer had been to the beach on each of the four days he had been in the Lincolnshire resort
She added: ‘Aaron could swim, but he wasn’t the strongest swimmer, and he was just dragged out and apparently started panicking.
‘One of his friends tried to help him, but he said by the time he got to Aaron it was already too late.
‘However, he stayed with him the whole time, and did everything he could, even to the point where he was almost drowning himself.’
She said that eventually, with the help of another man who appeared with a dinghy, they managed to get him back out of the sea.
‘Aaron’s friends are absolutely distraught. They are suffering from survivors’ guilt – even though what happened wasn’t their fault. It was a tragic accident.
‘Apparently it happened in 30 seconds. They just did not realise how strong the current could be. There needs to be more warning signs.’
Ms Smith, who is raising money for Aaron’s return home through GoFundMe,
took the picture of her brother on the beach when she visited the trio in the seaside resort on Sunday.
‘He was so happy’, she continued. ‘I told him to be careful, and to make sure he was eating and drinking properly in the hot weather – but I didn’t ever imagine something like this would happen.’
The county’s RNLI Lifeguards told in a Facebook post how they recovered an ‘unconscious member of the public from the water south of central beach, after he got into difficulty in the surf.’
Mr Keightley was ‘so happy’ on his first holiday with friends, his sister said
The RNLI Llifeguards in Lincolnshire posted on Facebook that Mr Keightley ‘got into difficulty in the surf’
It added: ‘Despite their best efforts to resuscitate him, the casualty sadly passed away at the scene.
‘Our thoughts go to the family and friends affected by the incident, along with many of the beach visitors who witnessed the tragic events at the time.’
East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance also attended the incident on Monday afternoon – the second beach fatality in the area in as many days.
On Saturday afternoon a teenage boy vanished from Anderby Creek, between the resorts of Skegness and Mablethorpe. A body was recovered in the early hours of Sunday.
Those tragedies came just a matter of weeks after hero holidaymaker Alexandru Melei, 60, died after wading into the sea at Ingoldmells, also near Skegness, after hearing twin girls screaming for help – only to be overwhelmed by the swell.
Another of Mr Keightley’s sisters, Kayley Keightley, 31, said that when the grieving family visited the beach on Tuesday, they only saw one lifeguard on the beach and another in a hut.
‘There needs to be more of them for a beach that has hundreds and hundreds of people on a nice day’, she said.
Referring to the weekend tragedy at Anderby Creek, Ms Keightley added: ‘There will be another tragedy – Aaron’s was the second one on the same stretch of coast…too many people are losing their lives.’
Hero holidaymaker Alexandru Melei, 60, died after wading into the sea at Ingoldmells on May 25
Anderby Creek beach, where a teenager went missing on Saturday. A body was found in the early hours of the following morning
Mr Keightley and his friends were said to have been been paddling in a section of water outside the area marked by flags which is monitored by the lifeguards.
Ms Smith added: ‘Aaron was too kind. He’d do anything for anyone, and give you his last penny.
‘He was a big kid at heart, and just wanted to be loved. He hadn’t met anyone serious yet, but I am sure he would have.
‘Now he’ll never have children. He still had so much to give to the world. It’s so sad.’
The family launched an online appeal for financial help after being quoted over £8,000 to bring Aaron’s body back from hospital in Hull and hold a funeral in Leicester.
Outlining the family’s ‘heart wrenching pain’ in a message alongside the fundraising appeal, Ms Smith said her brother – who lived with his mother, stepfather and younger brother, Alex, 17, in Beamont Leys – deserves a great send-off’.
She wrote of the tragedy: ‘The current took him so quickly and there is no fight against the sea!’
By Wednesday evening it had raised £1,600 of the £8,000 target.
Aaron Keightley was taken by the current while on his first holiday with friends, accoring to his sister
A spokesman for the RNLI said: ‘On the afternoon of Monday 30 June, a man got into difficulty in the surf approximately 200 metres south of the flagged area where RNLI lifeguards patrol at Skegness Beach.
‘Lifeguards on shoreline patrol between the flags were alerted to the incident by a member of the public and responded immediately.
‘They pulled the casualty from the water using their rescue board.
‘The team performed CPR until they could hand him into the care of the ambulance service. Very sadly, a later update confirmed the man had died.’
The spokesman said an RNLI lifeguard supervisor and three lifeguards who were on the beach responded to the incident.
East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance also attended the incident on Monday afternoon
He added: ‘Our lifeguard team’s thoughts go to the family and friends affected by the incident, along with the many beach visitors who witnessed the tragic events at the time.
‘The RNLI provides a beach lifeguard service at Skegness on behalf of East Lindsey District Council.
‘We provide a recommendation on when and where our lifeguard patrols could be and it’s the Council who agree and grant us permission.’
Romanian Mr Melei died on May 25 while on a trip to the UK to visit friends.
His daughter later told how the ex-army medic had been walking along the promenade with his wife and friend when they heard two girls screaming in the water.
The friend managed to rescue one of the children but Mr Melei was overcome by the swell and died in hospital.
Both children emerged unscathed.
The family are raising money to bring Aaron home via GoFundMe if you would like to donate.
