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Jason Owens

·Staff writer

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 10:43 pm BST

Liam Hendriks made his return to baseball last week following an offseason cancer diagnosis.

As of Sunday, he’s back in the win column. The Chicago White Sox closer pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a tie game against the Detroit Tigers. In the bottom of the ninth, third baseman Jake Burger ended the game in dramatic fashion.

Facing a 1-0 pitch with the bases loaded and one out in the 2-2 game, Burger saw an 89 mph curveball from Alex Lange hang over the plate. He launched it over the left-field wall at Guaranteed Rate Field for a walk-off grand slam to secure a 6-2 White Sox win.

The home run was the burgeoning White Sox slugger’s 12th of the season. It secured a win for Hendriks in his third appearance since returning to baseball following his cancer diagnosis. He earned that win on National Cancer Survivors Day.

Hendriks back in baseball months after cancer diagnosis

Hendriks revealed Jan. 8 that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He announced that he was starting treatment the following day.

“My treatment begins tomorrow and I am confident that I will make a full recovery and be back on the mound as soon as possible,” Hendriks wrote in a Jan. 8 statement. “I know with the support of my wife, my family, my teammates and the Chicago White Sox organization, along with the treatment and care from my doctors, I will get through this.”

On May 29 — not five months since his diagnosis — Hendriks followed through on his vow and returned to the mound for an eighth-inning appearance against the Los Angeles Angels. He didn’t have his best stuff that day, giving up two runs in a 6-4 Angels win that was secondary to his return

He followed that with a perfect seventh inning Saturday in a 2-1 White Sox win over the Tigers. On Sunday, he returned to his familiar spot in the ninth inning, again against Detroit.

He struck out outfielder Akil Baddoo in a nine-pitch leadoff battle. He then induced a ground ball from first baseman Spencer Torkelson on the first pitch of the at-bat. He closed the perfect inning with a swinging, five-pitch strikeout of Tyler Nevin that secured his spot in the win column.

Hendriks, a three-time All-Star, is in his 13th MLB season at 34 years old. He has now made three appearances in seven days, with a pair of perfect innings. He appears well on his way to a regular spot out of the White Sox bullpen.

Andrew Gregory Health editor in Chicago

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 6:55 pm BST

Thousands of bowel cancer patients could be spared radiotherapy, a study suggests, after doctors discovered they could rely on chemotherapy and surgery alone to treat their disease.

Radiotherapy has been used to treat bowel cancer patients for decades, but the side-effects can be brutal. It can cause problems that negatively affect quality of life, including infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhoea, cramping and bladder problems.

Now a clinical trial has found patients do just as well without radiotherapy as with it.

The research was presented on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), the world’s largest cancer conference, in Chicago. The results were also simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“Omitting radiation therapy can reduce short- and long-term side-effects that impact quality of life while providing similar outcomes in disease-free survival and overall survival,” Asco announced in a briefing paper.

In the study led by doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 1,194 patients with rectal cancer were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

One group received the standard treatment, radiation followed by surgery, and then, after the patients recovered from surgery, chemotherapy at their doctor’s discretion.

The other group received the experimental treatment, which consisted of chemotherapy first, followed by surgery. At their doctor’s discretion, another round of chemotherapy could be given.

Radiotherapy did not improve outcomes, the study found. After 18 months, there was no difference between the two groups in quality of life, and after five years, there was no difference in survival between them.

The study represents an exciting emerging area of cancer research. Experts are increasingly starting to focus efforts on trying to find elements of treatments that can be eliminated to provide patients with a better quality of life.

“We’ve reached a tipping point,” said Dr Pamela Kunz, an Asco expert who was not involved with the study. “As we develop new therapies, we are also exploring where we can eliminate toxic therapies for our patients’ wellbeing.

“The findings of this study allow us to do just that, showing we can omit radiation therapy for some patients, improving quality of life without compromising efficacy.”

The trial will continue to follow the participants and collect additional data on disease-free survival, overall survival, local recurrence-free survival and other secondary endpoints for eight years.

“This is really a case of less is more,” said Kunz. “The study shows that we can spare select patients from receiving radiation. This leads to improved quality of life and reduced side-effects including things like early menopause and infertility. This trial is practice-changing.”

Prof Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said doctors around the world were increasingly trying to find ways to reduce drug or radiation exposure to limit the long-term side-effects for patients.

“Pelvic radiotherapy is associated with major long-term side-effects,” he told reporters in Chicago. “I think avoiding radiation is a major step forward.”

Swanton said the research was “pretty solid”, adding: “On the basis of this, I think you can say you can safely avoid radiotherapy for many patients with this disease. I think it’s definitely an advance.”

Ellen Manning

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 5:10 pm BST

A woman had to have emergency surgery to remove two-thirds of her colon after GPs failed to spot “red flag” symptoms for a year – with one putting her weight loss down to anorexia.

Charlie Puplett, 45, raised concerns with her GP in May 2019 after experiencing unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite, a change in bowel habits, a tender abdomen, stomach pain and bloating.

The practice carried out tests but none of them were for colon cancer.

A year later, in April 2020, Puplett called an ambulance after vomiting blood and faeces while clapping for NHS workers outside her home during lockdown, and was taken to Yeovil Hospital where she was diagnosed with colon cancer.

She underwent an emergency operation to remove two-thirds of her colon and a tumour and also needed a stoma.

An investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found her original symptoms should have been red flags leading to urgent attention.

Puplett says she now feels unable to trust anyone and needed therapy for PTSD after her experience.

The risk management controller, from Yeovil, Somerset, said: “I kept going back to the practice and they just fobbed me off.

“They didn’t listen to me at all. I saw a different doctor each time, one of whom suggested I had anorexia and was in denial.”

Following a complaint to the PHSO, which investigates unresolved complaints about the NHS, the Ombudsman found staff at the practice should have suspected cancer and referred Puplett for further investigation within two weeks.

If she had been referred appropriately, she would have had a planned keyhole procedure, rather than unnecessary emergency surgery and a stoma, it said.

She also would not have needed a further operation a year later to remove the stoma, the investigation concluded.

The Ombudsman recommended the surgery pay Charlie £2,950 for its failures and put an action plan in place to prevent anything similar happening in the future.

Puplett said: “I’ve got a second chance and I’m thankful for that, but it’s had a huge effect on my life.

“I still experience severe lack of sleep and restlessness, and I’m constantly living in fear that any health issue will turn into something worse. My confidence and self-esteem are through the floor and I have problems trusting anyone.”

She added: “I don’t want this to happen to anybody else, which is why I took my complaint to the Ombudsman. I have to fight not just for myself but for other people too.

“Everyone needs to listen to their bodies. I knew something was wrong but I listened to the professionals who told me everything was okay. If you’re worried, demand things are checked out and get a second opinion if you need it.”

Ombudsman Rob Behrens said: “Charlie was failed by the professionals who she went to for help and the effect on her life has been significant. Not only did she have to undergo unnecessary surgery, but it has also affected her emotional wellbeing.

“We cannot change what happened but it’s important that when mistakes are made, organisations acknowledge what has happened and commit to learning from these mistakes to prevent it from happening again.”

A 65-year-old British base jumper has died after plunging from the side of a mountain in Italy.

Mark Andrews fell more than 400 metres (437 yards) and was killed instantly on Saturday. Another British base jumper died in the same place a year ago.

Mr Andrews, who was originally from Redruth, in Cornwall was understood to be wearing a wingsuit and a parachute. It is unclear why his parachute failed to deploy.

He reportedly had gone to the popular jumping spot at Paganella in the Italian Dolomites on his own. A retired engineer, Mr Andrews had been living with his wife in Bucharest, in Romania. He had previously lived in Russia.

Although relatively new to the sport, Mr Andrews was proficient, having completed nearly 600 jumps. He had, according to his Facebook page, leapt off mountains across Europe.

“He came to base jumping quite late,” a fellow jumper told Mail Online. “He’s only been doing it since 2014 but he packed a lot into those nine years.

“He was fearless and will be missed. He was a regular in Italy at various base-jumping events, but had also base-jumped all over the world off bridges and skyscrapers.”

Difficult location

According to another base jumper, the location was known to be difficult.

“It’s not a straightforward descent, there are rock and tree ledges for the first 400 metres before it then hits 1,500 metres straight down.

“You have to be careful with the wind as well and that’s why only experienced professionals jump from that point with others heading to another location about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) away at Mt Brenta.”

Base jumping differs from sky diving because it entails leaping from a fixed point, rather than from an aircraft.

It is considered to be one of the most dangerous extreme sports. According to one estimate, 311 base jumpers have been killed.

The first known leap from a fixed point was in 1617 when Fausto Veranzio leapt from St Mark’s Campanile in Venice.

Other notable leaps include Frederick Law’s parachute descent from the Statue of Liberty in 1912. Two days later Franz Reichelt died when his “coat parachute” failed to open after he leapt from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower.

A new television series will dismantle the “mythology” of Colditz and show the racist side of British officers imprisoned there.

The adaptation of Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, by Ben Macintyre, will offer a “21st-century narrative” view of life within its walls.

The book “digs a bit deeper” into the legend. One such legend is that of Douglas Bader, the flying ace who lost both legs in a crash in 1931 but became the RAF’s most celebrated Spitfire pilot during the Second World War.

“Bader was the most famous prisoner in Colditz. He was the most famous fighting soldier on either side during the war. He was an extraordinary man, remarkably brave; he could inspire courage in others.

But he was also horrible. He was a monster. Bader was racist, snobbish, brutally unpleasant to anybody he considered of lower socio-economic order,” Macintyre said in a talk at the Hay Festival.

Brutal racism

Another story told in the book, which will be included in the forthcoming series, is that of Birendranath Mazumdar. Indian-born, but trained as a doctor in London, he joined the British Army in 1939 as a medical officer and was captured in Normandy.

As the only Indian in Colditz, he was shunned by fellow British Army officers. Macintyre said: “He suffered terribly in a way that was shaming, really. He was treated with appalling racism. He was regarded as a second class citizen… told he had to make curry for everyone. Even for the time, it was pretty brutal, racist behaviour.”

Mazumdar eventually became a GP in Somerset and married an Englishwoman. He rarely spoke of his wartime experiences but recorded his experiences on microcassettes around 10 years before his death, which Macintyre used as research material.

“Joan, his widow, had never heard them before. We were both in floods by the end because it is an astonishing first-person account. He was still furious but there was forgiveness,” said Macintyre.

The television rights to the book have been optioned and it is being adapted by the same team who produced one of Macintyre’s earlier books, A Spy Among Friends, which was recently turned into a drama series for ITVX.

“The idea, a brilliant idea if it works, is to try to tell this story in a series of episodes, taking a different vantage point for each episode,” he explained.

“So one will be told through the eyes of Mazumdar, one perhaps through Reinhold Eggers. There is a way of taking the mythology that we all remember and playing with it, and creating a quite different 21st-century narrative to look at that story again.”

Eggers was the security chief at Colditz, described in Macintyre’s book as an “ardent Anglophile” who “made no secret of his admiration for the British countryside, courtesy, language, food and good sportsmanship”, having spent several months in Cheltenham in the early 1930s.

Macintyre said that many ex-prisoners had a level of admiration for Eggers, judging that he had retained his humanity during the war.

Pat Reid was one of the few prisoners to make a successful escape to freedom from Colditz, in 1942; when he was honoured on This Is Your Life decades later, Eggers was the surprise guest.

‘Myth of Colditz’

The writer and journalist said that the “myth” of Colditz was partly formed in the national psyche by the 1972 BBC series of the same name.

He said: “As many people did, I watched the 1970s black and white TV series on the BBC. It was almost a religious ritual in my family, that we sat down every week. It was proper appointment television.

“One-third of the entire British population watched that TV series and it told a story that was dated in the way we saw the war: a story of brave British men with moustaches digging their way out of this enormous Gothic schloss and, in a way, winning the war by different means.

“It was a way of dignifying the prisoner-of-war experience. It was a very familiar myth and, like all myths, it was partly true. The story of the escapes from Colditz are fabulous: the ingenuity, the courage, the lateral thinking that went into them is extraordinary.

“But, like all myths, it is partial. It doesn’t tell the whole story. Very early on in the project I thought, ‘There is an entirely separate set of stories that have never been told.’”

Macintyre said that The Great Escape, the 1963 film about a real-life escape from Stalag Luft III, was another example of our desire for history to be turned into an uplifting tale of British heroics.

“The Great Escape story is an astonishing story, but I always thought it should have been called The Great Tragedy. It was a terrible event. They were all captured and almost all of them were murdered.

“You get a sense of that right at the end of The Great Escape but it is a really shocking episode turned into heroism, because that is what we do,” he said.

Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle by Ben MacIntyre is published by Viking at £25. To order your copy, call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books.

Rishi Sunak will use his trip to Washington this week to encourage Joe Biden to back Britain’s defence secretary for the top job at Nato.

Ben Wallace has already said he is interested in the position of secretary general at the Western defence alliance when it falls vacant in September.

The Prime Minister will spend two days in Washington and he will meet the US president at the White House.

The pair will discuss co-operation on economics, trade, science and technology, with billions in business investments in the UK expected to be signed. They will also discuss ways to regulate Artificial Intelligence.

Mr Wallace is popular in the US thanks to his central role in helping to drum up an international coalition of support for Ukraine.

He has also brought UK defence spending up to 2.25 per cent of GDP and is pushing for it to reach 3 per cent by the end of the decade.

Last month, Mr Sunak spent some time on the margins of the recent G7 meeting in Hiroshima lobbying for Mr Wallace.

Possible by-election

If the Defence Secretary were to succeed, it could trigger a by-election in his Wyre and Preston North seat. The appointment of Labour MP George Robertson as Nato chief in 1999 – the last time a Briton held the role – led to a by-election in his Hamilton South constituency.

The concern in London is that the French and Germans will unite to try to block a Briton from getting the post and there is talk of them backing the first female secretary-general in order to scupper Wallace. The other frontrunner is thought to be Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, who is seeing Biden on Monday.

But she runs a country that does not even spend the target of 2 per cent of GDP on defence and has combined armed forces of fewer than 20,000 personnel. “I’m not sure what message that would send to countries about the 2 per cent target,” a senior government source said.

Mr Wallace admitted to German media last month that the job of Nato secretary general was one he would like.

He told news agency dpa: “I’ve always said it would be a good job. That’s a job I’d like. But I’m also loving the job I do now.”

Oliver O’Connell,Graeme Massie,Joe Sommerlad and Gustaf Kilander

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 8:24 pm BST

Ron DeSantis has offered his own definition of “woke” days after Donald Trump said “half the people” can’t define the Florida governor’s favourite word.

During a campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday, Mr DeSantis said: “Look, we know what woke is, it’s a form of cultural Marxism. It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth.”

Two days earlier, Mr Trump criticised the GOP’s overuse of the word at his own campaign event in Iowa.

“I don’t like the term ‘woke’ because I hear, ‘Woke, woke, woke.’ It’s just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it,” he said.

Also on Saturday, Mr DeSantis vowed to dismantle President Joe Biden’s “disastrous” economic policies if he wins the White House.

The Iowa visit came at the end of a week marked by multiple tense outbursts. In South Carolina on Friday, a woman interrupted Mr DeSantis’ speech by shouting: “You’re a f***ing fascist.”

This prompted boos from the wider audience, with Mr DeSantis replying: “ Well, yeah, thank you.”

Key Points

• DeSantis wraps up first early states tour
• Woman interrupts DeSantis speech to claim her son’s murder was covered up in Florida
• DeSantis snaps at reporter: ‘Are you blind?’
• Florida governor under fire over anti-immigration law as boycott pressure grows
• DeSantis hits familiar targets Fauci, Disney and ‘wokeism’ in first rally as 2024 candidate
• Candidate vows to ‘destroy leftism’ and accuses Trump of allying with Disney

Dafydd Townley, Teaching Fellow in International Security, University of Portsmouth

Fri, 2 June 2023 at 3:46 pm BST

Florida is known worldwide for its beaches, resorts and theme parks, but has recently made headlines for a different reason. The state has been rocked by political controversies, bitter debates and fatal shootings at odds with its previously laid back holiday destination image.

In his 1947 book, Inside USA, writer John Gunther described Florida’s “freakishness in everything from architecture to social behaviour unmatched in any American state”. If Gunther had been writing today, he might be just as judgemental.

Florida’s recent political turmoil can be attributed to some highly contentious policies. The state has witnessed heated debates and legislative battles on issues including abortion, gun control, education, LGBTQ+ rights and voting rights.

Florida has been derided as “the worst state” in which to live, one of the worst in which to be unemployed or a student, and not a good place to die.

Even Donald Trump, who moved to his Florida Mar-a-Lago home during his presidency, has called it “among the worst states” to live in or retire to. This was an attack on Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination.

What was once considered by many to be a purple state – one that could either be Republican or Democrat – is now fiercely Republican. In recent years, the divide between those of different political beliefs has become toxic.

Importance of international image

International tourism and trade is huge business for Florida. In 2022, more than 1.1 million people visited Florida from the UK, the second largest group of international visitors on an annual basis. The UK is also Florida’s eighth largest trade partner with bilateral trade reaching $5.8 billion (£4.6 billion) in 2022. So state leaders might worry about tarnishing its image abroad.

Business leaders are already fretting about a fall in international visitor numbers linked to COVID and negative media coverage of the state. Around US$50 million was invested in marketing the state to tourists in 2023, this is expected to rise dramatically in 2024. The state’s ability to attract workers to keep its tourism and other industries going is weakening, reports suggest.

Heather DiGiacomo, chief of staff at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, told Florida senators that applications for jobs at state-run agencies were down and staff retention was down too. “These turnover rates … impacts the number of well-trained staff available to mentor new staff and puts additional strain on current staff without longer shifts in detention.”

Republican governor Ron DeSantis, now a presidential candidate, has been at the centre of Florida’s significant political divisions. The Republican state legislature’s controversial partisan bills, such as the recent redrawing of the electoral map to benefit the Republican party, was signed into law despite intense opposition.

While his conservative policies on taxes, regulation and immigration have won strong support from conservatives, critics argue that he prioritises partisan politics over the needs of all Floridians. His outspoken handling of the COVID pandemic sparked controversy, with accusations of downplaying the severity of the virus and prioritising economic interests.

Florida’s restrictive abortion laws have also attracted national and international attention. In April 2023, the state passed the foetal heartbeat bill, which prohibits abortions once a foetal heartbeat is detected, typically at around six weeks gestation. This law has faced significant backlash from reproductive rights advocates, who argue that many individuals may not even be aware of their pregnancy at such an early stage.

School shootings and gun laws

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act was passed into Florida state law after the Parkland school shooting in 2018, in which 17 people were killed. It was controversial because it did not place restrictions on gun ownership or introduce background checks before gun purchases, but allowed schools to employ armed “guardians”. Critics argued that it fell short of addressing the root causes of gun violence in Florida.

There were seven mass shootings in Florida in the first two months of 2023. Despite this, the state has just passed a law that will come into effect on July 1 that will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without the need for a permit.

Florida’s partisan divide has been exacerbated by the introduction and passage of several laws that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community. These laws cover areas including adoption, education, and transgender rights.

This year a massive LGBTQ event in a Florida theme park, which typically attracts 150,000 people, is taking out extra security measures, after new “don’t say gay” state laws were introduced in 2022. These rules ban teachers from discussing topics including sexual orientation. More generally, travel advisory warnings have been issued on the risks of travel to the state for LGBTQ+, African American and Latino people. A recent federal ruling overturned municipal bans on conversion therapy.

Although the “don’t say gay” bill was originally only aimed at third grade students and under, the bill has since been extended by Florida’s Board of Education to apply to all school pupils.

DeSantis has also become embroiled in a long legal and political battle with the Walt Disney Company, a major state employer, over the “don’t say gay” legislation. Disney recently announced it was cancelling a US$1 billion office complex project in the state.

Bills that restrict transgender students’ participation in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity have also sparked heated debate.

Meanwhile, changes in voting laws brought in by the state, including stricter identification requirements and limitations on the drop boxes where voters can leave mail-in ballots, have been criticised for making it more difficult for some people to vote.

Florida’s recent political turmoil has thrust the state into the national, and global, spotlight. Its deeply partisan divide, controversial policies and gun laws have created a toxic political climate, which has the ability to significantly damage the sunshine state’s appeal.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Hundreds of migrants have been returned to Albania under a “gold-standard” deal with the country, says immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

It compares with more than 12,000 Albanians who crossed the Channel on small boats last year, according to official figures.

Mr Jenrick initially said “thousands” of illegal migrants were being returned to Albania, before clarifying that “hundreds” had been returned since the agreement was signed six months ago.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge, he said it was still “early days” and that “spurious last minute claims” had held up deportations – but admitted many others were currently in hotels or had absconded.

Mr Jenrick was asked: “How many people who’ve arrived on small boats have been returned to Albania?”

He replied that “thousands of Albanians are returning to Albania”.

Pushed on whether the figure included criminals – rather than just those who had crossed the Channel, he added: “Well, there are hundreds of Albanians who’ve arrived who have been placed on those flights.”

The government said in April that “over 1,000” Albanians had been returned since December’s deal.

However, the figure included “failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and voluntary returns”.

Mr Jenrick called the deal a “gold-standard” agreement that was also “significantly” reducing the number of people trying to get to the UK illegally.

Rishi Sunak and his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, agreed in December to enhance cooperation in three areas, one of which covered the fight against organised crime and illegal immigration.

The deal included setting up a joint task force to “manage illegal migration of Albanian citizens to the UK”.

Mr Jenrick also told Sky News that a separate deal with France had seen a “big increase in the number of interceptions” of small boats – with 33,000 migrants prevented from crossing.

The prime minister has made stopping illegal migration one of his five pledges to the British people.

The Albanian prime minister told Sky News earlier this year that Downing Street had showed “important signs of regret and embarrassment” over language used by ministers.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously spoken of “Albanian criminals” crossing the Channel and likened the influx of small boats to an “invasion”.

Mr Jenrick has also said before that Albanians should be excluded from the right to claim asylum.

Ellen Manning

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 7:58 pm BST

The body of a woman has been pulled from the sea after being found in the water off the seaside town of Saltburn.

Cleveland Police said officers were called to Saltburn beach on Sunday afternoon by ambulance service colleagues who were responding to reports of a body in the water.

“Sadly the body of a female was recovered from the sea shortly afterwards,” the force said.

It said formal identification was yet to take place, adding: “Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased person at this very difficult time.”

Enquiries into the circumstances of the woman’s death are ongoing, the force added.

The tragic discovery happened off the North Yorkshire seaside town of Saltburn, or Saltburn-by-the-Sea, a Victorian seaside resort popular as a tourist spot.

The incident comes as the family of a 17-year-old boy who died after being pulled from the sea in Bournemouth issued a heartfelt tribute to him.

Joe Abbess and a 12-year-old girl died in an incident involving 10 swimmers last week. Dorset Police is investigating the incident.

Ellen ManningThe tragic discovery happened off the North Yorkshire seaside town of Saltburn, or Saltburn-by-the-Sea, a Victorian seaside resort popular as a tourist spot.

The incident comes as the family of a 17-year-old boy who died after being pulled from the sea in Bournemouth issued a heartfelt tribute to him.

Joe Abbess and a 12-year-old girl died in an incident involving 10 swimmers last week. Dorset Police is investigating the incident.

In a statement, Joe’s family described him as “kind and generous, loving and caring, hardworking and funny”.

“Joe was a talented trainee chef, with a bright future ahead of him… we are so sorry he will never fulfil his dreams and ambitions,” they said.

They said Joe had been enjoying a day at the beach, adding: “We would like to thank his friends and all of the emergency services who helped him, when this tragedy unfolded.”