A teenage swimmer spoke of the moment she was plucked to safety after spending almost two hours in the water.

Hannah Winslow, 13, was rescued by Southend lifeboat after a search involving two other lifeboats, the coastguard and a rescue helicopter.

She had almost made it back to shore after swimming a quarter of a mile out to sea when she was picked up.

A friend of the St Bernard's High School pupil raised the alarm after Hannah went missing. Hannah, of Manchester Drive, Leigh, thanked the emergency services and her friends for acting quickly.

She said: "I had been out there for an hour and three quarters and I was getting a bit tired and cold. I had a rest and I was about to swim to the jetty, but I was not getting far, because the current was against me. I would like to say thank you and I appreciate the help everyone gave me."

Hannah added a man, Peter Beckett, had paddled out to her in his dinghy and followed her as she swum ashore.

Hannah's friend Elaine, also from Manchester Drive, said: "We kept checking to make sure she was there, and when we noticed she wasn't we went called the coastguard."

Hannah's mum Elaine, 41, heard the helicopter above her house seconds after she took a call from the coastguard to say her daughter was missing.

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