A HEROIC lifeguard and a sea-swimming veteran helped to haul a pensioner from the sea after he became disorientated with hypothermia.

Brighton and Hove City Council seafront officer Charlie Branson and Brighton Swimming Club sea-swimming coach Fiona Southwell saved the man in his 70s as he began struggling in strong currents yesterday morning.

Mr Branson leapt into action at about 7.30am when he saw Mrs Southwell heading into the sea with a rescue tube to the east of the Palace Pier while on his morning patrol.

They swam out to the man who was struggling to keep his head above the spring tides about 50 metres from the shore.

They brought the man out of the water, gave him oxygen and tried to keep him warm and conscious while they waited for paramedics to take him to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The dramatic rescue comes just a day after tragedy at the Mawgan Port beach in Newquay, Cornwall, where two men and a woman died on Sunday – a beach that Mr Branson knows well having surfed there as a youngster.

Mr Branson said: “He was conscious when I brought him out of the water so he didn’t need CPR but it could have reached that point, it was just a matter of intervening before he reached that point.”

The 33-year-old told how he was thinking about the tragedy in Newquay in his truck moments before the rescue.

He said: “The next thing I know I am doing a rescue myself – it’s quite sobering.

“The two incidents were at different ends of the country but it just shows that the dangers are all around the coast.”

Mrs Southwell said: “I was able to rescue him with the seafront officer who was on hand.

“He did need an ambulance but I took back home from A&E to his home and he is recovering well.

“The sea temperature had plummeted this morning, we all felt it.

“He felt a little dizzy and a little disorientated which are the first signs of hypothermia but we did have the situation under control.”

The man was swimming outside the bathing season in the city which ends on September 30 and during spring tides where the tidal changes are their most extreme and where currents are at their strongest.

From November 1, the six staff at the city’s seafront office, who are all trained lifeguards, will be monitoring the 13km of beach between Hove Lagoon and Saltdean alone.

Mr Branson said: “If you are going swimming then you should tell somebody.

“Ideally people should swim with a friend but if not they should contact us or the coastguard if they intend to go swimming.”