Cullercoats beach

The girl, who the lifeguards had been watching for some time, was waist-deep in the 8ºC water and visibly suffering from the cold, but had refused the lifeguards' requests to come back into shore. Eventually a lifeguard entered the water to persuade the girl to come in and get warmed up.

Bringing her back to the lifeguard station and out of the cold wind, the lifeguards treated her for hypothermia. She and her friends were reluctant to talk about what had happened and refused to give any contact information for her parents. After an hour, continued attempts to warm her were proving unsuccsessful, so an ambulance was requested along with a police presence (which is procedure for children who refuse to give any parental contact information). The girl was taken by ambulance to North Tyneside General Hospital and made a full recovery.

Media reports later stated that the reason for the girl's reluctance to leave the water was that she had been threatened by a group of school bullies who were also at the beach.

• NSVL provided volunteer lifeguard patrols at Cullercoats and Tynemouth Longsands over Easter with good weather and surf bringing out hundreds of people to enjoy the beach for the first time in 2007.