Lifeboat crew called out during Christmas dinners

A team of lifeboat volunteers left their family dinners to respond to their first Christmas Day call-out in several years.

Members of Redcar RNLI attended an emergency at Newport Bridge just before 14:00 GMT on Wednesday and launched the Leicester Challenge III, which remained at the scene until later that afternoon.

The previous day, volunteers were also in action when a casualty was discovered by an off-duty paramedic, whose partner happened to be a crew member at the station.

They were able to carry out lifesaving care until the ambulance crew arrived and took over.

Mike Picknett, lifeboat operations manager at Redcar RNLI, said of the Christmas Eve incident: "Part of our lifeboat crew's training includes casualty care where they are taught how to carry out CPR.

"The casualty was very fortunate that many of the Redcar crew live close to where the incident occurred and were able to help the off-duty paramedic very quickly."

The Christmas Day call-out saw volunteers leave their Christmas dinners when their pagers went off early that afternoon.

Craig Pearson, launch authority during the Christmas Day call-out: said: "This was Redcar's first Christmas Day shout for several years.

"We had a fantastic response from our volunteer crew who left family celebrations for several hours to attend."

Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].