INSP Kent and Sgt Stayte said they visited Ryan and mum Kim Smith at home and were happy to find Ryan had made a good recovery.

Sgt Stayte said: “He was just an ordinary little boy who wanted to show me his bike and he wanted to play with his mates.

“Meeting us didn’t appear to be an earth-shattering moment in his life.

“It was just, ‘Have you seen my bike?’ and he was off – and that’s how it should be.”

Insp Kent said: “Kim just thanked us for getting Ryan back to her. It was a humbling experience to meet her because I’ve always been impressed by her dignity and composure.

“She’s suffered the worst thing that you can endure and she’s continued on as a mum in a dignified way.”

Both men shrug off the word hero and said they acted on instinct.

Insp Kent said: “A little voice in my head said, ‘You’d like to think that someone would do this for your kids’. I didn’t need any more prompting than that.

“People always think of the two individuals who went into the water but we wouldn’t have got Ryan out without others who were there.”

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