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The mother of two brothers who were found on top of a volcano in Bali after going missing for 40 hours has recalled her ‘worst nightmare’.
Matthew Forster, 22, and his sibling Andrew, 18, from London, had attempted to climb 10,000ft to the summit of Mount Agung to see the sunrise.
Their phones died near the top, and the two were stranded, missing theirflighthome after a nine-week adventure across south-east Asia.
Their mother Katherine Forster is GB News’ political correspondent and was meant to be covering the General Election on Thursday.
But instead experienced the ‘worst day of her life’ when she was told of her children’s plight.
She toldGB News:‘My husband had died of a heart attack very suddenly in 2021, so I’ve literally just got the three of them.
‘And before they’d gone away, I’d said to them please be careful. I can’t take any more trauma.
‘They’d mentioned a hike in passing, but I didn’t know the details. And I said to them, don’t go off on your own, people get lost – Jay Slater, Michael Mosley, go in a group. And Matthew’s exact words to me were “mum we’re not stupid”.’
She added they were revealing their ordeal in the hope other travellers ‘learn from this’.
She said: ‘They were so lucky, and I just want hopefully other families with kids traveling to look at this and know that they made it out, but they very nearly didn’t.’
A friend of her sons got hold of her on Thursday morning, telling her that the two had started climbing the volcano at 8.30pm on Tuesday.
Another friend who Matthew and Andrew had met while travelling had already reported them missing to the British Embassy.
An extensive search was deployed, and the boys were discovered in the middle of the night – 40 hours after they set off for their journey.
Katherine said in a thread on X: ’40 hours after they had set off, they were found.
‘Weak but alive. The first rescuer to reach them said they thought they’d be dead. Three dozen search and rescue, police, fire saved their lives.’
Matthew and Andrew had managed to survive using their scout training and skills learnt watching Bear Grylls videos to gather rainwater and build a shelter.
Andrew said: ‘We’d been shouting for help all day, we’d made an SOS as well. And we heard noises from the forest, so we go further down and we see their flashlights. And it was the search party.’
Matthew added: ‘We’d collected rainwater, so we’d had stuff to drink. We hadn’t eaten, so we were extremely exhausted. But when they found us they were like, you boys are very, very stupid.’
Katherine confirmed that her sons 2343 on on a flight, returning to the UK. She detailed the entire ordeal on X: ‘Yesterday morning I should have been outside No 10 reporting.
‘More importantly, my two eldest sons should have arrived home after a nine- week adventure across Southeast Asia. But they didn’t.
‘They weren’t on the flight. They’d hiked up 3000m volcano Mt Agung starting 2.30am Wed (8.30pm Tues night BST) to see the sunrise. Phones died near top. I didn’t know.
‘Luckily they’d been in touch with friends going up. And a Swedish friend, Sarah, who they’d met in Vietnam had reported them missing to the British Embassy on Wednesday night (BST).
‘Thursday was the worst day of my life. But friends dropped work and came round. Made phone calls.
‘Our tech savvy young friends & friends of friends spread the boys’ pics & last known location across social media. The Foreign Office were amazing. Local rescuers scoured the volcano.’
Despite Matthew and Andrew’s survival skills, Katherine stressed that they were not ‘prepared’ and should have travelled up the volcano with a guide.
She added: ‘Words have been exchanged. Thank god that’s possible. They are so sorry.’
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