A HEROIC footballer who last month saved the lives of three holidaymakers has continued his good deeds by donating to a mother who lost her son in a plane crash.

Sunderland winger Duncan Watmore has handed over £3,000 to Ann Cantle, the mother of Andrew Cantle who was tragically killed six years ago when the commuter plane he was co-piloting crashed in thick fog at Cork Airport in Ireland.

The Northern Echo:

Sunderland hero Duncan Watmore

The striker made the donation during his visit to the RNLI lifeboat station in Sunderland, after being inspired by his own experience of saving lives at sea.

Last month, the 23-year-old Black Cats star was involved in a boat crash with his girlfriend whilst on holiday in Barbados.

The couple were thrown overboard when a catamaran rammed the speedboat they were on.

But the winger, who was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury in December, managed to get three passengers out of the water until coastguards rushed to their rescue.

The donation will take the fund set up in Andrew’s memory to its initial milestone of £40,000 - enough money to buy a new lifeboat, which will be stationed at Sunderland and named after Andrew.

Andrew had spent more than seven years working as a volunteer for the RNLI, before moving to York to take up a career as a pilot.

Mr Watmore said: 'My own holiday rescue incident made me appreciate the RNLI message to us all to Respect the Water, and my visit to Sunderland RNLI today has taught me that the real heroes are the men and women who volunteer for the RNLI.

“I am delighted that our family donation to the Andrew Cantle fund will both give the RNLI another state-of-the-art rescue boat, and provide a fitting memorial for one much missed, brave volunteer.”

Ms Cantle said: “I can’t thank Duncan and his family enough. It is absolutely amazing. We are blown away by their generosity.

“We’ve longed for this day when we reached our target — it’s come quicker than we ever thought. We kept saying we would do this and it will be a nice memory for Andrew.”

During the visit, Mr Watmore was given a guided tour of the charity’s two inshore lifeboats as well spending time meeting some of the lifeboat station’s volunteers to learn about the charity’s rescue and prevention work.

Paul Nicholson, Helmsman at Sunderland RNLI, said: ‘Everyone involved at the lifeboat station is thrilled to receive this fantastic donation from Duncan.

“It was also interesting for our volunteers to learn more about the recent maritime rescue which Duncan found himself in the middle of during his holiday.’