The grief-stricken family of a successful young man from Swansea have paid an emotional tribute to his memory after an accident on a night out in London resulted in his tragic sudden death. James East had been out with his girlfriend Bella in the Kingston area of the city to celebrate Bella's sister's 18th birthday.
At one point in the evening, he went to take a break by sitting on a walled area of a bridge, roughly around hip height, but misjudged his seating position. He fell backwards, hitting the back of his head before falling into the River Thames. He had been on Facetime to Bella as the tragic accident took place, as he had been trying to locate her so they could catch a taxi home together.
Emergency services were called and they rushed to his aid. Efforts were made to save his life for three hours in hospital, but his family say that he was worked on under the assumption that he had drowned, rather than for his head injuries, which a postmortem later revealed was the cause for his passing. He was just 25.
Paying tribute to Mr East, his sister Abigail, and mum, Sara, said: "His poor girlfriend was actually on Facetime to him trying to direct him to their taxi, and she has gone through hell now as she has watched that happen. He was in the water for 50 minutes and then they found him and took him to hospital where they worked on him for three hours to try and save him. When he had the post mortem, it was found that he was dead before he entered the water due to his head injuries, but they didn't realise that. Because he went into the Thames they thought he had drowned. They were working on him thinking he had drowned when it was his head. They weren't to know that.
"We're just devastated. It's awful, he's so young and had so much to look forward to. To be honest, it still hasn't registered with us. It was just horrendous for my mum, Kingston Police had to call South Wales Police who then had to come here at 4.50am and knock the door. It was a three and a half hour drive up there which was just horrendous for my mum and our stepdad. They asked them to pull over half way to say they couldn't work on him any longer and that there was nothing they could do. It's horrendous, just for them being on the side of the motorway and to receive that news. They tried to get a police escort, but couldn't get one, so they had to drive the rest of the way."
Mr East studied at the London School of Economics, and whilst there, he fell in love with the city and found work there, employed as a business development executive at Trybe, where he would be involved in delivering business pitches. He was born and bred in the St Thomas area of Swansea, attending Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr school, and he had a passion for football, even having trials for the likes of Leicester City at one stage, and even at clubs in Australia - something he eventually decided against due to his dislike of spiders.
He played at Welsh league level with Garden Village and Pontardawe, and as a youngster played for Port Tennant Colts, primarily as a centre midfielder, although he played in many positions. He followed Swansea City and Tottenham Hotspur. Mr East was due to run the London Marathon the week after his passing, and his family had arranged to go to support him, and he had arranged to take Abigail for lunch for her birthday on the same weekend.
It took two weeks for Mr East's family to arrange to bring him back home to Swansea, and he was laid to rest on October 13. His wake at Swansea Dockers Club was so well-attended that they had to open the upstairs of the venue as well as the downstairs to fit all of the mourners inside. Get stories like this straight to your inbox with our newsletters.
"Six weeks before he died he landed a job that he absolutely loved," Abigail said. "He was doing really well and they loved him. He absolutely loved London and he used to joke that he only ever used to come home to see his niece, but we are a close family and he is a home bird at heart.
"If you didn't know James that well you'd think he was very quiet and well-spoken, but he had a very dry sense of humour and was the life and soul of the party. It was testament to how popular he was by the amount of people who turned out for his funeral. He had so many friends. His boss from Trybe travelled down and he only knew him for six weeks. He told us that he knew he was special from the moment he interviewed him. They shut the office for two days after they found out. People had such nice things to say about him, and it was nice to know he was so happy and doing so well, but it's just bittersweet because we wanted that to carry on for him.
"He'll definitely be best remembered for his cheeky smile - that got him away with everything! He meant different things to everyone. With his friends he was the life and soul, but to us he was just perfect, he was really loving and loved his niece to bits."
A fundraiser set up to support Mr East's family has so far raised £2,320. There's also plans for a memorial football match, and a bench in his memory to be installed at Three Cliffs, one of his favourite spots. If you would like to contribute to the fund, you can do so by visiting the GoFundMe page by clicking here.
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