QUICK-thinking hero Simon Street wrapped a dangerously cold teenage kayaker in his coat and kept him warm with his own body heat as they waited to be rescued on a freezing South Hams beach.

Simon had raced around half a mile across fields and climbed over fences to get to the tiny cove near Stoke Fleming where teenager George Slade had crawled ashore after his kayak had capsized.

A second teenager Charlie Vaughan had climbed more than 300 feet up a cliff on bloody bare feet to get to Mr Street's remote home in Stoke Fleming's Shady Lane to raise the alarm after the accident on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Street grabbed a pair of binoculars and the warmest coat he could find before dashing to the beach to try to find the missing youngster, who had come ashore some 300 yards further down the coast from his friend.

Mr Street could not spot him with his binoculars but he was able to see the tracks in the sand where he had dragged himself across the beach.

"I could see where he had crawled across the sand and then huddled up against a rock face," said Mr Street.

"I took his pulse. He was suffering from hypothermia and shock. He was extremely cold. I wrapped my coat around us both and shared my body heat with him. I could see that he was in a bad way.

"I think if he had been left there another 20 or 30 minutes he would have been in a very bad way."

The pair were left shivering on the beach for some 15 minutes before the Dart inshore lifeboat reached them and was able to take the teenager to Blackpool Sands where an ambulance took him to hospital.

Mr Street said the youngsters who had climbed to his home had had to negotiate more than 200 stone steps to get there after climbing across slippery rocks to get to the shore.

He said neither of the 18-year-olds had been wearing anything on their feet, although they were both clad in wetsuits.

"He came ashore in a place which is very, very difficult to get out of the water. His feet were badly lacerated by the time he got to the house," said Mr Street.

The two Plymouth university students had been staying at the home of George's uncle Tim Slade at Redlap House near Stoke Flemming for the weekend.

They were attempting to kayak from Redlap Cove, near the uncle's home, to Blackpool Sands when disaster struck and the kayak overturned at around 3pm on Sunday.

They were in the water for 30 to 40 minutes in sea temperatures of 12 degrees Celcius before they managed to get ashore.

The first youngster climbed out of the water below Mr Street's clifftop home but the second youngster swam further down the coast before getting out of the water where Mr Street found him.

The Dart RNLI inshore lifeboat was on the scene within eight minutes of launching in the River Dart.

Lee Darch, who is an outdoor pursuits instructor in Brixham and, at 19 years, the youngest and most recent crew member to join the Dart team, was put ashore to assess the condition of the youngsters.

Said a Dart lifeboat spokesman: "The water temperature was 12°C. and the wind was blowing 20knots from the NE.

"The inshore lifeboat veered to the cove and took off the casualty. They took him to Blackpool Sands, where he was met by the mobile coastguard team and paramedics. He was transferred by ambulance to Derriford Hospital. The inshore lifeboat returned to the cove and recovered the kayak, which was taken back to Dart lifeboat station."

This was the 20th emergency call out the Dart lifeboat has had to deal with since it came on station just over a year ago and the first classified as a life saved.

"This was exactly the sort of rescue the inshore lifeboat is ideal for," said Andy Pound in charge of the mobile coastguard team at Stoke Fleming.