When members of a North-East rescue team are asked if they always respond to the call of duty, three of them can certainly say "I do".

The trio, from the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade, dashed from a wedding to help capsized boatmen.

After getting the alert on their pagers, Adam Duffy, Harvey Smith and Dan Reed dashed to Long Sands, Tynemouth, where four men in their 20s had been thrown from a speedboat into the sea. But fellow crew member, bridegroom John McMullin, opted to stay at his reception to cut the cake.

The incident happened at 2pm on Saturday as John and new bride Yvonne were holding their reception at the brigade's headquarters, Tynemouth's Watchhouse Museum. Adam said: "When we heard what was going on, John just said `go, go, go'. His wife even turned to him and said `what are you still doing here?'

"We were all in our best dress, but we didn't need to go wading into the water. We just got a bit of sand in our shoes."

Coastguards managed to get the men out of the water before the brigade arrived. They had been in the sea, off the north end of Long Sands, for about 15 minutes after capsizing 75 yards from the shore.

Brigade members took them to the boathouse at Cullercoats to get a hot shower, as they were suffering from hypothermia, then they were taken by ambulance to hospital.

Brigade chairman Captain Will Hogg said: "I think John was cutting his wedding cake at the time the call came through - it's a valid excuse."