A PREGNANT mother has told how she rescued her young daughter but was unable to save her teenage son after their car plunged into a dyke on a family holiday.

Rachel Edwards, 39, escaped through an open window as the car sank in ten feet of water – then swam back underwater to rescue her daughter, Isabella, two.

But she then faced the agonising decision of whether to try to also rescue son Jack Brennan, 16, and risk letting go of Isabella.

Rachel, who is seven months pregnant, said: "The last thing I remember about my son is, as the car was going down, he put his hand on my arm like he was protecting me."

Only five days after Jack's death, Rachel had to go and pick up his GCSE results.

Jack's dad, Carl Brennan, who lives in Radford Street, Alvaston and is separated from Rachel, spoke of his disbelief when he heard about the accident.

"It is a hard thing to put into words how I feel," he said. "You don't think you would ever have to bury your child."

The tragedy happened on August 19 in Lincolnshire.

Rachel, Jack and Isabella – who moved to Essex four years ago but are originally from Mickleover – were on their way to a holiday in Mablethorpe to stay with family.

Their Citroen Xsara left the road and plunged into the dyke near Boston.

Two of Jack's teenage friends who were also in the car managed to escape, but he could not get out, and was later certified dead in hospital.

Skateboard and rock music fan Jack, a former pupil at Murray Park School and Silverhill Primary School, was sitting in the front seat next to his mother when the silver Citroen Xsara drove into a pothole – veering off towards the dyke.

Rachel said: "I took a deep breath and expected the car to stop sinking but as it went down I felt the car turn over.

"At first I didn't try to get out because I was in shock. But my window had been open so I managed to get out and up to the surface.

"But Jack's window hadn't been open – I told him to close it before we went into the dyke because Isabella was sitting behind him in her car seat and she was asleep."

Rachel first tried to rescue Isabella.

"I saw the bottom of the car so I shoved my hands under and I felt her car seat. I pulled her out and I knew she was still alive," she said.

"I tried to go back for Jack but I knew if I let go of Isabella then I wouldn't be able to get her back.

"I was just screaming and screaming. (Jack's friends) Tom and Dave had managed to scramble out and they went running off to the nearest house to get help."

Shortly afterwards an ambulance arrived at the scene.

Rachel and Isabella were helped out of the water and treated at the scene before being treated for minor injuries and shock at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital, in Lincolnshire.

But she wanted to go back to save Jack.

"The ambulance crew would not let me get back into save him. Since then I have spent every waking moment thinking about how I could have saved both my children," she said.

Isabella was later transferred to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham for further treatment.

However, she has now made a good recovery and is back home with her family.

On August 24, five days after his death, Rachel collected Jack's GCSE results.

"He got Cs and Ds. That was what he needed to get into college," she said. "He might have not got As or anything, but he made a lot of people happy and that to me is more important than exams."

Jack's funeral last Friday in Dunmow, Essex, was attended by more than 300 people.

Rachel said: "The nicest thing about the funeral is that people were lining down the streets to pay their respects. Jack would have loved the funeral we gave him.

"I was surprised at how many people turned up. I didn't realise he had touched so many people. I can imagine he was looking down and thinking, 'what a spectacle this is'."

At the time of his death, Jack had been looking forward to going to rock festival Ozzfest, at the O2 in London.

He was buried with an Ozzfest VIP pass, sent to the family by organisers especially for the funeral.

And singer Ozzy Osbourne – who is headlining the festival – sent the family a signed ticket for Jack's casket, but unfortunately it did not arrive in time.

Now Rachel is preparing for the birth of a little boy, who is due on November 21 – just three days after Jack's birthday.

"Jack wasn't too pleased about that when I told him because he thought his 18th birthday next year would be overshadowed by the baby's," she said.

Rachel said that when Jack was a pupil at Silverhill Primary School, in Draycott Drive, he was the happiest she had ever seen him.

"It was the only school he ever adored. He was one of the only pupils who used to run into school in the morning," she said.

"He once knocked over a little girl in the playground by accident. He felt so bad about it and as soon as he got home he wrote a letter to her to say sorry. That was the kind of person he was. He was respectful and always told the truth and he could be trusted immensely. Jack was a character who could not fade in the background."