by A son has described his heartbreak after his father died on a walk in the Peak District.
James Alexander Ryan, 65, was walking with friends near Speedwell Cavern, Castleton, on Saturday when he tripped and fell.
He suffered a head injury and, despite the best efforts of paramedics and mountain rescue teams, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 65-year-old’s son Jonathan, 28, said his family were shocked by his death.
She said she spoke to her father the night before he died, and that when police arrived at the family’s Manchester home to tell them of the tragedy, they were “in total shock”.
“We’re all so shocked, it hasn’t gotten to any of us yet,” she said.
“You don’t expect your father to leave and then not come home.
“They were going for two days over the Easter weekend and planned to go up to Speedwell Cavern to take some photos and see the views. It was on the way down that he fell.”
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She said the loss of her father comes just a few years after her half-brother James died in 2017, at the age of 42.
“We buried my brother a few years ago and it was really hard for all of us, and now we’re going to have to do it again,” she said.
“To my mom, my dad is her only ever partner. They’ve been together for 42 years and she doesn’t know what it’s like to be without him.”
The Edale Mountain Rescue Team said they were called to the scene around 7pm on Saturday evening, along with officers from Derbyshire Police and paramedics from the East Midlands Ambulance Service.
It said: ‘A group of friends visiting the area for the weekend were walking away from the hill when one slipped and fell some distance, sustaining severe head trauma in the fall.
“A couple of local team members arrived on the scene at the same time as an ambulance crew and the team paramedic.
“Despite the best efforts of their friends, team members and ambulance crew, the injuries sustained were inconsistent with life and the walker was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene.
“After the intervention of the police, the deceased was evacuated from the hill. Our condolences to the family and friends of those involved”.
A Derbyshire Police spokesman said: “We were called to report that a walker had tripped and suffered a head injury near Speedwell Cavern, Castleton on Saturday night.
“Mountain rescue and ambulance crews attended but sadly the 65-year-old man, from Colchester in Essex, was pronounced dead at the scene.”
The East Midlands Ambulance Service said it received a call at 6.54pm on 8 April at Speedwell Cavern in the Peak District and sent a paramedic in a car and manned ambulance to the crash.
