RNLI parent-and-child teams on call for Christmas Day

Two families are foregoing full-on festive fun to spend the day on call for the RNLI.

Dr Kay Heslop, a volunteer at Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear, said she was "immensely proud" to be on duty with her lifeboat helm daughter Anna.

In North Yorkshire, Lee Jackson and his daughter Eleanor have changed their Christmas Day plans to be on standby.

In the past five years RNLI lifeboats in north-east England have gone to the aid of 36 people over Christmas.

Dr Heslop, an assistant professor at Northumbria University, will be ready to assist her 27-year-old daughter, who is a full-time RNLI fundraiser and helm of the Cullercoats inshore lifeboat.

She said the crew was prepared to respond "when the weather's at its worst and lives are on the line" whatever the time of year.

"Before I became lifeboat operations manager, I'd sometimes drive Anna to call-outs and one year she got paged around 04:40 on Christmas morning.

"I dropped her off at the lifeboat station and distinctly remember standing outside in the moonlight in my pyjamas.

"We'll both have pagers this Christmas, so we could end up being at the station together again. A call can come at any time and our volunteers will drop whatever they are doing, be that tucking into their Christmas dinner or opening their presents."

Mr Jackson, 47, and his daughter, 19, will be on standby for Staithes and Runswick RNLI.

They have celebrated Christmas a day early to fit in around their shifts.

Mr Jackson, a ship's pilot for the River Tees and Hartlepool, said: "If the pagers go off though, we'll put the turkey on hold and will be tripping over each other to get out of the door.

"The volunteer crew at Staithes are used to being on call day and night, no matter what the weather and Christmas is no exception."

He said volunteering alongside his police community support officer daughter made him "immensely proud" and joked that as lifeboat helm, working together was "about the only time she does what I ask her to do".

Dr Heslop added there was "no feeling quite like bringing someone home safe to their families - especially at Christmas".

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