A TEENAGER who was airlifted to hospital after being pulled from the sea at Tywyn has died aged 16.

Blake Ward, from the West Midlands, passed away in Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool, at approximately 7am this morning.

Blake’s heartbroken childhood sweetheart Stephanie Ray has paid an emotional tribute to her boyfriend and promised to "make him proud".

"Today has been the hardest day for me and it will be a day I will never be able to forget," she said.

"As some of you may know Blake was involved in a terrible accident on Tuesday.

"I have been by his side through it all and I haven’t left him. As you all know Blake was a loving, caring person and would do anything for anyone.

"We were told yesterday that Blake would never recover and his brain was too damaged and we had to make the hard decision of turning his machine off and let him go.

"Blake was someone special to me and we had something special and we will always have that.

"Me and Blake had our ups and downs but we always got through, them but just know Blake wasn’t in any pain and he passed away with his family around him and he will forever be missed and he will always have a special place in my heart.

"I will never forget you Blake. Fly high my baby boy and I’m gonna make you proud love you and I always will."

Stephanie’s mother Becky was equally devastated.

"Blake, our beautiful, brave, kind-hearted, clever boy sadly passed away at 7.03 this morning," she said.

"Even though he hadn’t been part of our family for long his loss has left us beyond devastated and heartbroken.

"Sleep tight sweet angel you truly were too good for this world.

"We will never forget you."

Three teenagers from the same family were airlifted to hospital on Tuesday afternoon after being pulled from the sea.

The condition of the other two teenagers is not yet known.

The family was also keen that lessons should be learnt following the second death in three years off the coast of Tywyn.

Richard Guest, 74, lost his life rescuing two teenage girls in July 2015.

"We can hope that lessons can be learnt from this and that we hope it will help to get the proper people onto the beach so this will never ever happen again," Becky concluded.

Despite pressure from local politicians, Gwynedd Council has maintained it cannot afford RNLI lifeguards on its beaches.

Both Conwy and Ceredigion have lifeguards on their beaches.