Lifeboat radio found in river 10 weeks after rescue

David Tough was clearing a river sluice at Welney when he spotted the faded orange RNLI float attached to the walkie-talkie

A lifeboat radio has been reunited with its crew after being found washed up in a river miles away from the spot of a rescue 10 weeks earlier.

Farmer David Tough was clearing debris from a sluice at Welney, on the Norfolk-Cambridgeshire border, in September when he spotted an item floating on the edge of the tidal waterway.

The walkie-talkie had vanished during an operation by a crew from Hunstanton's Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to save four people and 22 animals nearly 30 miles away (48km) on the River Great Ouse in King's Lynn on 8 July.

Paul Stewart, from the station, said it was "great" to get the equipment back on Sunday and he was "thrilled it's still working".

Mr Tough handed over the device to Stuart Murray, one of Hunstanton RNLI's hovercraft crew, on Sunday

Mr Tough - a grazier at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve who manages a 450-strong herd of cattle on the 1,000-acre site (405 ha) between Downham Market and Ely - said the device stood out from the usual debris, such as pallets and driftwood, that washes up in the River Great Ouse.

"I saw something in the water which had RNLI on it," said Mr Tough.

"I knew I'd seen something like it before, then I realised I'd seen them on Saving Lives at Sea, so I went and got a rake and fished it out.

"It was snagged to start with but I jiggled the rake a bit and after I freed it, I found it had a radio attached. When I switched it on, it lit up and still worked."

Mr Tough contacted the RNLI station after spotting the attached float

Mr Tough contacted his nearest lifeboat station at Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast, and it was confirmed a radio had gone missing.

Mike Gould, the lifeboat's operations manager, said: "When we found it had been lost, we just assumed it had been washed away - there was so much going on that night.

"It was a massive surprise when David contacted the station, we couldn't believe it."

On Sunday, Mr Tough went to the lifeboat station to return the lost kit to the volunteers, joking it might need a "little bit of a clean".

Mr Stewart added: "We're so grateful to David for finding it and bringing it back once he realised who it belonged to."

Despite the radio's soggy journey, its manufacturer said other devices had also survived lengthy soakings.

These included one that spent five years in the damp depths of a yacht hull and another that was dredged up from a lake after disappearing four months earlier.