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More than £14k raised for boy who died in tarn

Jason Arunn MurugesuNorth East and Cumbria
News imageFylde Cricket Club Absi Ahmed smiling on a cricket pitch looking at the camera side on. He is wearing a white cricket top and a blue cricket cap. There are clouds in the otherwise blue sky. Fylde Cricket Club
Absi Ahmed died after getting in difficulty at High Dam Tarn in Cumbria

More than £14,000 has been raised for the family of a teenage boy who died in a Lake District tarn.

Absi Ahmed, from Poulton, got in difficulty at High Dam Tarn, near Windermere, just after 12:30 BST on 7 April. Cumbria Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Theo Earnshaw, one of Absi's best friends, said Absi was always smiling and made everyone laugh.

Theo said he set up the fundraiser because he wanted to "do anything I could to help the family out" and "just to take some pressure of them".

The teenager said there were some early-stage plans to use part of the money to pay for life-saving equipment and safety signs at the tarn where Absi got into difficulty.

But he said initially the money raised will go towards covering the family's funeral and memorial costs as well as covering any immediate household bills to give them the space to grieve.

He said an imam at the family's local mosque had also set up a fundraiser in memory of Absi to fund projects in Yemen and Afghanistan.

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