Bystander tells how he tried to save the lives of Doncaster dad and daughter who died in the sea at Cornwall
Bystander Jamie Stockwell, 47, threw himself in fully clothed to grab the woman, aged in her early 30s
A bystander has revealed how he desperately tried to save the lives of a Doncaster woman and her dad who died off a popular beach.
According to a report in The Sun newspaper, the passerby heard shouts of help and dashed down a cliff to the shore, where he saw the daughter lying face down in the water at Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall.
Her boyfriend was nearby trying to reach her after she apparently fell in by accident while walking — and her father followed in a failed rescue bid.
Bystander Jamie Stockwell, 47, threw himself in fully clothed to grab the woman, aged in her early 30s.
Jamie said: “I saw her head down in the water and her partner was trying to shout at her.
“I jumped in with all my clothes on. I didn’t realise how deep it was.
“It was very powerful swell and I was lucky I wasn’t another casualty.
“We were being hurled on to the rocks. I managed to push her up and her boyfriend pulled her up by the arms and started to try to give her mouth-to-mouth.
“She had swallowed loads of salt water. We tried to give her CPR for about ten minutes. I was trying to keep her partner calm as he was in pieces.”
The father, said to be in his 60s, was pulled out of the water a few hundred feet away and given CPR but also died.
The dad and daughter, both from Doncaster, died at the western edge of the beach underneath the clifftop Fistral Beach Hotel and Spa at 9.45pm on Sunday, July 26.
A Coastguard helicopter, boats, police and ambulance services scrambled to the scene.