12:00a.m. 10th September 2007

| By Amy Remeikis

18-year-old Tyson Leader died tragically on the Gold Coast on Friday night after he fell 24 storeys from the Aegean Hotel in the heart of Surfers Paradise.

Jan Leader always knew her son Tyson had the heart of a daredevil.

“I was at his pre-school speaking to one of his teachers and she was looking past me and her eyes were looking up,” she said.

“And there at the very top of the tree was Tyson. He was three years old.

“I knew if I yelled, he might fall, so I said ‘Tyson, you get back down here now’ and he did, but he had a great big smile on his face.

“And that was just him. He just had no fear.”It wouldn’t be the last time Jan’s heart would almost stop after seeing or hearing about her youngest son’s daredevil deeds, but he would answer her concerns with a cheeky grin, an “awww mummm” and a promise to be more careful.

She saw that cheeky smile for the last time on Friday when she dropped Tyson at a friend’s house ahead of his trip to the Gold Coast for the 18th birthday celebrations of one of his best mates.

“I said to him ‘have you packed your toothbrush?’ and he just looked at me and said ‘mum, I’m not going to school camp. I’m 18-years-old,’ so I bit my tongue. “So I just said to him ‘be safe’ and he said ‘yes mum’.”

But as any of the former Mountain Creek High student’s friends would tell you, Tyson would do anything to make others laugh.

It was probably what he was trying to do when he decided to swing off the balcony of a 24th floor unit in a Gold Coast high-rise on Friday night.

He had slipped over the edge and was holding onto the railing in a crouching position with both hands, when he decided to let go with one hand.

With his mate Jimmy Atkins still just 30cm away and staring into his eyes, Tyson’s other hand slipped and he fell.

“We had to go to the morgue to go see him and I just looked at him and said ‘mate, what part of be safe did you not get?’,” Jan said yesterday remembered her son with the cheeky grin.

“But he was just doing what he loved. He is such a social kid and he touched so many kids’ lives. He would just collect people, he just loved everyone and wanted everyone to get along.

“He had a gorgeous girlfriend, he loved his job, everything was just starting to come together for him.”

Tyson’s older brother Ryan, 21, was last night trying to organise a flight from the UK where he has spent the past two years, so he could be with his mum and her husband Matt.

He had just asked his little brother to be best man at his wedding and in the hours before the accident had sent a text message letting “Tyso” know how much he loved him.

But while she waits for her eldest son to come home, Jan said Tyson’s many friends have been “a huge comfort” to her.

Within hours of the accident they had begun dropping by her Buderim home to share their stories, give her hugs and remember a warm, caring and funny teen. Some of those friends, including his girlfriend Alex, gathered for a barbecue at Alexandra Headland yesterday to try and comfort each other.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Cam Dunn.

“It’ll hit me when he doesn’t come over. I’m still just waiting for him to rock up, but I know it’s not going to happen. It’s surreal.”