Daughter of Haverhill man Damian McNutt raising money to install lifesaving equipment where he drowned in River Nene, Peterborough

A 12-year-old girl is fund-raising to buy lifesaving equipment that can be placed next to a river in which her dad drowned last year.

Ellie Mae McNutt’s dad, Damian (known as Damo) drowned in the River Nene in Peterborough on May 24.

The 31-year-old, who grew up and went to school in Haverhill, where many of his relatives still live, went into the water at 2pm and even though he was a good swimmer he got into difficulty.

His body was pulled from the river at 11am the next day, barely 50 metres from where he entered the water.

Following the tragedy, Ellie Mae, who lives with her aunt Farrah in Leicester, learnt that there is no equipment next to the river that can be used to help anyone who gets into peril - and she decided to do something to change that.

Mr McNutt’s cousin, Maisie Peters, who lives in Haverhill said: “She said, If there was a lifebuoy there; where he died there are gates for boats, and she was like, surely there should be a lifebuoy here, so it was really her idea.

“It is all monitored by my cousin but it is all her own work.”

Ellie Mae, who has two siblings, Remi, nine and Kali-Star, six, set about raising the £1,500 needed to buy two lifebuoys and a bleed kit that can be placed next to the river and used in emergencies.

One lifebuoy can be placed at each end of a bridge that spans the river.

So far Ellie Mae has raised £410 from a fund-raising page - found by going to justgiving.com and searching for Farrah McNutt - plus £110 from a prize-draw, £22 from selling bags of sweets and is now making jewellery to sell, but more help is needed.

Maisie said of Ellie Mae’s efforts: “We are very proud of her. Her little brother and sister can look up to her and say, our sister did that.”