A teenager who was dramatically airlifted to safety after becoming stuck on a treacherous Angus cliff has thanked his rescuers and urged others not to follow in his footsteps.
Stephen Lorente (18) said he was ”scared and terrified” as he got stuck halfway up the 40ft cliff when he scaled the rocks to retrieve his football.
His worried mum Sharon Law also spoke of her fears that her diabetic son could have gone into hypoglycemic shock had he not been rescued so quickly.
Stephen’s aunt happened to be walking along the cliffs at the time of the rescue and got the shock of her life when she realised who the stricken teenager was.
The day after the drama, The Courier brought Stephen together again with the crew of the Arbroath lifeboat so that he could say a personal thank you for their help in averting a tragedy.
The crew also reunited Stephen with the very thing that led to him putting himself in danger his lost football.
Stephen said: ”I now know how serious this could have become and would urge people not to put themselves in this position. I was scared and terrified knowing that one wrong move and the situation could have been totally different.
”I would also like to say sorry to all my family for putting them through this worry. I did not realise I would get stuck trying to retrieve my football.”
His friend raised the alarm after Stephen was left stranded on a cliff face ledge about 20 feet from the water with nowhere to go.
The emergency call just before 5pm sparked a turnout of coastguard teams from Arbroath and Montrose, as well as the Arbroath all-weather and inshore lifeboats.
The operation was co-ordinated by the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre team at Fife Ness and also included a rescue helicopter from Lossiemouth, which, by good fortune, had been in the Tayside area and was quickly on the scene.
Stephen said: ”I got to the ledge and thought I could jump down to the rock below but I realised I couldn’t make it and I had nowhere else to go. I was hanging on to the cliff and thought about trying to get down myself but it was just too dangerous.
”I was scared to move in case I slipped and thankfully one of my friends phoned for help.”
Arbroath RNLI put ashore crew member Allan Russell and he was able to scale the cliffs to reassure and assist the teenager before he was airlifted to safety.
Stephen added: ”He told me to keep calm and not to worry. He saw the gap and said there was no chance of me jumping down or going back up.”
Sharon said she broke down in tears after being reunited with her son on Wednesday night.
She said: ”It just goes to show how quickly things can deteriorate. Stephen is a Type 1 diabetic and takes five injections a day. He took his jab at lunchtime and wasn’t due another one until tea-time.
”Obviously if he hadn’t have been rescued so quickly it could have been a massively different outcome. Stephen could have gone into hypoglycemic shock if his blood sugar levels had dropped.”