A DIVER went out on a limb for a North-East swimmer when he donned his gear and managed to retrieve her missing prosthetic leg from the River Tees.

Last month, Teesside athlete Kate Sunley was left devastated when she emerged from an open swimming session at Stockton’s Preston Park to find that the leg she’d left on a jetty had been taken.

Celebrated swimmer Ms Sunley, who suspected it had been dropped in the river by youths who had congregated nearby, was left inconvenienced and forced to wait several weeks for the NHS to create a replacement for the made to measure limb, which allowed her to access open water sites.

She has now been reunited with her ‘faithful friend’, nicknamed Pogo, after diver Neil Richmond jumped in the river on a mission to find it.

Mr Richmond, regional coach for the British Sub Aqua Club, contacted Ms Sunley through social media after hearing about her plight and offered to help.

On Wednesday evening, he joined her at the jetty in Preston Park and donned his gear to scale the murky depths of the Tees.

Diving four or five meters and braving water he describes as “like cold coffee”, with zero visibility, he conducted his mission by touch alone and discovered a mountain bike and “the ubiquitous shopping trolley” before coming across Pogo, which was tangled up in debris.

The 47-year-old, who lives in Berwick, told The Northern Echo that it was a pleasure to be able to reunite Ms Sunley with her limb.

He said: “I thought it was a rotten thing to have happened to her and thought, with my diving experience, that I had half a chance of finding it for her, if it was in the river and had not been stolen.

“She was over the moon when she saw that I had it and was dancing around on the jetty.

“It’s a real pleasure to see Kate reunited with Pogo, she seems like a very active person who does so much and it was good to be able to help out.”

Ms Sunley, who is recognised by the International Ice Swimming Association as the world’s first disabled female ‘ice miler’ thanked Mr Richmond for his kind efforts and said it felt like all of her birthdays had come at once.

She said: “Words can’t describe how thankful I am.

“It looks like my suspicions were right and kids dropped it into the river, maybe trying to pull it up from where it was.

“Neil offered to help out of pure good will and I think it’s incredible, it has restored my faith in humanity.

“He’s a complete stranger who had the means to do something and did it, not for financial reward, but to help.

“I’d like to thank him and everybody else who has helped, I’ve been so surprised by the support I’ve had, it’s been phenomenal.”