The family of a student who died died tragically on holiday just two weeks after finishing his final exams went to collect his A-level results yesterday.

Steven Roberts’ grieving family paid tribute to the “amazing” young man and spoke of their pride.

Steven, 19, was excited to start the next stage of his life after leaving Thornleigh Salesian College in June, looking forward to a stag party trip to Prague with family.

Heartbreak hit the family while he was in Prague. The stag group boarded a boat for an evening cruise down the river in the Czech capital but just four minutes into the journey, Mr Roberts disappeared from view.

It is believed that Mr Roberts fell over a low railing on the boat’s top deck, hitting his head and ultimately dying in the water, where he was discovered by rescue teams the following day.

Mr Robert’s death came at a time when “everything was just coming up right for him”, according to the “determined” student’s mother and stepfather.

The pair said: “Steven did what Steven wanted to do, he lived minute by minute and lived life as he wanted. It’s like he went to the shop one day and picked up a bottle of motivation.

“He was the kindest person and always put others first. He had so much going for him and so much love to give. He was a credit to himself.”

Yesterday, the family found out that Mr Roberts had achieved three Distinctions and a Distinction*, a Merit and B grade in his A-level and BTEC results at Thornleigh.

The family said: “He was an underdog, he decided to stay on at Sixth Form for a third year and retake some of his exams. He came out of his shell so much in the last year and, in the last few months, he really knuckled down.”

The high grades would have granted the lifelong Bolton Wanderers fan a place at his first choice for university, Bangor University — an opportunity to study Criminology which he could not wait to take up.

The couple said: “Steven would have been the first in our family to go to university and it was all his choice. It was like he woke up one day and just decided what he wanted to do.

“He was all enrolled at Bangor with his best friend, we had been down together as a family, he had picked his room. He was over the moon to be going.

“We are just so proud of him and we always will be.”