OP John Faber (38-41) dies after trying to save a 13-year old girl from drowning. 

John Faber, 84, has died shortly after going to the help of a 13-year-old girl in difficulties off Littlehampton's West Beach in Sussex.

The girl, Madeline Swan, was visiting the Fabers with her grandmother from the United States. The couple were standing in the water as the waves were too strong for swimming. Suddenly the girl was swept off her feet by force 7 southwesterly winds and a strong current and tide. John went to try to help her but was carried onto a large inshore breakwater together with the girl.

John protected the frightened teenager from the waves while she tried to climb the West Works pier at the mouth of the river Arun but took a battering in the process and suffered extensive cuts and bruising from the shingle and barnacles clinging to the pier.

John's wife Jeanne, 80, raised the alarm with a 999 call and the Littlehampton lifeboat station responded quickly with crew members wading through the sea to get to the pair. By the time the crew arrived John was a dead weight, unable to support himself. Though conscious he was badly shocked and had to be carried through the surf to safety.

The girl was winched to safety from the top of the pier by a Solent Coastguard helipcopter. Both were subsequently airlifted to Worthing Hospital where they were treated and allowed to go home a couple of hours later.

John had recovered sufficiently to visit the Littlehampton lifeboat station three days later to thank members of the lifeboat crew for their actions. But he subsequently died. An obituary will be published on the site later.