A RNLI volunteer had his grooming session cut short when his emergency pager sounded to alert him to stricken kayaker.

Cameron Bond leapt from the barber's chair mid-haircut and ran to join three fellow volunteers to launch the Redcar lifeboat at 9.45am today, when the alarm came to rescue a kayaker who had been thrown into the sea from his craft at Saltburn.

The Coastguard had received 999 calls reporting a kayaker had capsized in his craft off, and was struggling to make to safety.

When the lifeboat arrived at the scene the crew discovered that the man had been rescued by a nearby surfer and was safe and well ashore.

The kayaker waved to the crew to indicate where his drifting craft was. When the lifeboat arrived at the location they found that the surfer had paddled out on his board in an attempt to retrieve the lost craft.

Being approximately a mile off shore by this time, the surfer, his board and the kayak were taken on board the lifeboat and returned to the beach near the Ship, Inn, Saltburn.

As soon as the lifeboat returned from the rescue mission, Mr Bond helped refuel the lifeboat before heading back to the barber's chair to get his trim finished.

He said: 2When my pager went off the barber was a bit puzzled. He didn't really understand what was happening when I said I had to go in a hurry.

"When I got back to the barber's, he asked me all about the rescue. He couldn't believe I was a volunteer and didn't get paid to rescue people."