Surrey family, friends mourn young man who drowned near Mission

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – A Surrey family in mourning is urging others to be careful around water after a 25-year-old star athlete drowned at Davis Lake near Mission days ago.

Dhanpreet Bains was swimming with friends and family after a hike on Sunday when he suddenly disappeared from view. Bains, who was just a month away from his 26th birthday when he died, drowned despite knowing how to swim.

Bains is being remembered for his kindness, and those who knew him say this loss has hit the community hard.

“We talk about how great of an athlete he was, he was definitely very athletic. But he was one of the most amazing students I’ve met,” Gary Atwal, Bains’ former coach, tells OMNI Television. “Kids looked up to him in the building. From Grade 8 to 12, kids looked up to him. He was a leader in the building.”

Bains was not wearing a lifejacket at the time of his death. His family and friends are now urging others to be more careful while out in the water this summer.

The 25-year-old was an avid soccer and basketball fan who also volunteered for Hoops for Kids.

“It’s hard to come to grips about losing somebody so young like that, that you’ve seen grow up into the person that they are. A leader, having his family around a lot at games,” Atwal adds.

“He’s a leader that you wanted on your team,” Bains’ friend, Tyler Ram, added. “If you made a mistake, he would never put you down for it. He was the type of person who would teach you what you did wrong and teach you in a good way how you can be better. He’s just a good guy, good heart.”

A GoFundMe has been set up so that Dhanpreet’s family can make a donation in his memory to a charity of their choice.

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