Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, tragically drowned after slipping and falling between two giant boulders while walking her dog along the seafront in Lowestoft, Suffolk
A young mother who died after slipping on a coastal path was beneath the water surface when paramedics arrived.
Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, was walking her dog when she fell down a boulder gap on Lowestoft seafront in Suffolk and became trapped between the rocks. Her 11-year-old daughter was with her at the time.
Coastguard officers, police and paramedics raced to the scene, but she was “underwater and unresponsive” when they arrived, The Lowestoft Journal has reported. They were working against mother nature, hoping to free Saffron from the rocks as the tide drew closer in on Sunday evening.
Saffron had three children, the youngest of whom was born just a few months before her tragic passing, with her two other kids, Jessica, 11, and Jasmine, seven, distraught after the death of their beloved mother.
Devastated friends have been asking how such a tragedy could have happened. The coastal path has been likened to an “ice rink” by locals. Last week, one friend said: “Everyone is in disbelief. She was with her 11-year-old daughter. They were walking along. Jess was holding the dog and Saff fell. Apparently the temperature dropped and the surface became like ice. She slipped.
“We’ve heard it suggested that she got wedged into the rocks somehow but it’s not clear exactly what happened next. It seems there are questions that need to be answered. There will have to be a coroner’s report but none of it makes any sense.”
The mum’s grief-stricken partner, Mike Wheeler, described the tragedy as “a freak accident”. The 42-year-old wrote online: “My darling Saff. What can I really say, there are no words to express how much we will miss you. The world is so cruel and to take you in this freak horrific way will not sit well with me for the rest of my life.
“You will be forever missed by so many and I’m really not sure I’ll ever be the same without you. Me and the kids will love you and never forget you, until we meet again.”
Saffron moved to Lowestoft from Gillingham, Kent, last year. Sarah Houckham, a friend in Gillingham, told MailOnline: “To think she was just 32. She had the kids and the baby – Hudson is just eight months old. They had gone up there to start a new life and had found a bit of happiness.
“She was an absolutely fantastic person. Saff would light any room up and was full of life. She was such a good friend – we go back a lot of years. We had each other’s backs.”
