It was a hot July day and Mel Beamish decided to go for a swim in the River Brathay, high in the Langdale valley in the Lake District – it’s a remote, beautiful spot miles from the nearest town.
Mel and her friends, who’d run an ultra-marathon (36 miles) the day before, visited a popular swimming spot beside a grassy bank for a cool dip.
The country was experiencing drought, and the river was low – though Mel, 38, a police detective from Cheshire, didn’t know the significance of this at the time.
Nor did she know she was swimming below a submerged
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