#Dad of 7 dies a hero after saving his kids’ lives from a riptide

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Jonathan Stevens (right) and Laura Burford (left) with four of their children — including Lacey (bottom right) and Jack (bottom center), whom Stevens pulled from a riptide.
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A 36-year-old British father died a hero on Sunday after saving three of his children from a riptide off the coast of Wales.

Jonathan Stevens, vacationing from the English town of Telford, noticed the trio, aged between 10 and 12, struggling in the water around lunchtime, according to the Mirror.

Stevens, a plasterer known as “Joff” to his friends, then got caught in the current. Following a rescue operation by boat and helicopter, searchers found him in serious condition and air-lifted him to a hospital where he died.

Stevens’ partner, 34-year-old Laura Burford, who remained back in England at the time of the incident, told North Wales Live that he died a hero while “saving their babies,” going on to say that, “I am absolutely devastated to say that I have lost the complete love of my life.”

The couple has seven kids together.

“There are no words to describe the pain,” said Burford. “I will always be grateful to [him] for bringing our babies back. I love him, always have, and always will.”

A friend named Mel Plowman set up a GoFundMe page on Sunday for Burford and the kids — so far raising the pound-to-dollar equivalent of $5,547 of its $6,520 goal.

“I wanted to set up this fund page to help Laura with any costs she may need along the way and also a little keep gift for the children as a memory of their Hero,” Plowman wrote on the fund-raising page.