Family find solace in final picture of teenager
THIS IS the last photo taken of a teenager shortly before he was killed in a crash. Ryan John Craddock and his two friends were photographed on a Welsh beach the night before he died.
Ryan, 18, was pictured on Barmouth beach the night before he was killed in a crash with a tanker on the A470 near Dolgellau on July 1. The two friends he was with were airlifted to hospital with critical injuries.
His mother, Sarah, has spoken of how much the photos mean to her because they showed the keen footballer in his “happy place”.
Ryan’s family used social media to try to track down the person who took the photo, and managed to find amateur photographer Hishaam Khan.
Sarah told the Daily Post: “Ryan loved going to the beach with his mates and spent the weekend there from June 30 to July 1.
“He left Barmouth on July 1 at around 4.45pm to come home, sadly the accident happened just half an hour later and he passed away at the scene.
“We became aware of the photos about a week later when we visited the other two lads that were in the car. They told us that a stranger had asked if he could photograph them while they were walking along the beach, as they looked really happy and he said the photos of them silhouetted against the sunset would be lovely.”
The family took to social media in a desperate appeal to track down the pictures, and thanks to almost 5,000 shares, word got to Mr Khan, who sent them on.
Sarah said: “The photos mean the world to us and I can’t express how happy we are to have found them. We are so grateful to Hishaam and everyone who helped.
“We found out that the photos were taken around 10.25pm on June 30. One day I’d love to travel to Barmouth, as I am yet to see one of the sunsets Ryan loved so much.”
Hishaam Khan, a primary school teacher who lives in Birmingham, said: “I take photographs as a hobby, and when I saw the guys walking on the beach in the sunset I had to capture the shot.
“Ryan gave me his email address and asked me to send them to him.
“I sent the email but it bounced back because the images were so large in resolution, so when I re-sent them from work the next day I never got a reply. I didn’t think anything more of it until my phone started going mad with messages from people who’d found them on my Instagram after seeing the family’s appeal.”
Ryan, from the Cannock area of Stafford, died after the Seat Ibiza he was driving collided with an HGV near the Cross Foxes pub in Dolgellau.