THE mother of a 34-year-old Dartford man who died after being pulled from a freezing lake has said “he did not realise how much people loved him”.

Mark Katnoria, who lived with his mother Pat in Barham Road, drowned after getting into difficulty while swimming in Cotton Lake, Crossways Business Park.

In a touching tribute, his mother Pat told News Shopper: “He was well loved by everyone.

“He was a gent, that’s the hardest thing.

“I’ve got to carry on somehow.”

A large scale emergency operation was launched after a fisherman spotted Mark had gone missing while swimming on Wednesday, February 27.

A police helicopter was scrambled and officers, ambulance staff, and firefighters were called to, Galleon Boulevard shortly after 10am.

A boat was sent to rescue him from the freezing water before he was taken back to shore and paramedics attempted to resuscitate him in the car park of The Wharf pub.

The voluntary patient at Littlebrook Hospital was rushed to King’s College Hospital in London by ambulance where he later died.

Pat set up a support group for those bereaved by suicide after her 25-year-old daughter Julie tragically took her own life by jumping from a block of flats.

After her daughter's death in August 2005, Mrs Katnoria went to a meeting held by a group called Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide in Maidstone and was inspired to start a similar group in Dartford in 2008.

Mark’s neighbour Debi Letchford, 47, says news of his death has shocked the close-knit community in Barham Road.

She said: “He was a really nice chap, he was lovely, quite shy. We miss him.

“I usually saw him out in the garden having a cigarette and would speak to him over the fence.

“It was such a tragic accident.”

Mark has worked at John Lewis department store in Bluewater for the past six years and his next door neighbour Vita Harvey, 53, spoke to him in the shopping centre three days before he died.

She said: “He was happy and seemed fine. “He was a lovely guy. It’s really sad.”

Mark, a keen lightweight boxer, served in the army for three years in Germany and donated a kidney to King’s College Hospital.

A post-mortem examination carried out on February 28 ruled the cause of death to be drowning.

An inquest has been opened and adjourned but a date is yet to be set.