A RETIRED police officer with a passion for diving will explore the wreckage of a historic North-East Navy ship when he tackles his 12,000th dive this spring.

Laurie Cummings splits his time between School Aycliffe in County Durham and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, where he spends the majority of the year pursuing his favourite interest.

The 74-year-old started diving in the early 1990s in the North Sea and loved it so much he moved to Bodrum in Turkey to explore the many diving hotspots.

After 12 years in Turkey, he moved to Egypt’s diving capital in 2005 to work as a dive guide.

To date, he has completed 11,928 dives.

With just 72 to go until he hits 12,000, he is planning a special dive to mark the milestone, a 30-metre plunge to the wreckage of SS Thistlegorm, which was sunk by German bombers in the Red Sea in 1941.

Mr Cummings said: “I was born in Easington, a colliery village on the coast just south of the River Wear and Sunderland where the Thistlegorm was built.

“The ship was launched and sunk the year I was born, 1941, so it has been at the bottom of the sea for some time now.

“I thought it would be a nice way to commemorate the 12,000th dive.”

Mr Cummings served as a police officer in County Durham for 31, undertaking a variety of roles including traffic officer, custody sergeant and explosives and architectural liaison officer.

He has been passionate about fitness since his school days and took up diving after retiring from competitive running.

In 1992, he took part in the Veterans World Championships and gained three world rankings, 9th as a marathon runner, 9th as a 25k road runner and 24th as a 10k road runner.

“I always wanted to learn to scuba dive but it was frowned upon to deviate from athletics training,” he said. “As a result of a slight knee injury I was able to turn to scuba diving in 1993.

“You have got to do it to believe it. In Egypt it is out of this world, absolutely gorgeous. The water is warm, there is an abundance of fish life and the coral is superb.”

Mr Cummings returns to Egypt tomorrow (Saturday, January 21) and plans to do two dives six days per week to hit 12,000 by April.