A father who was plucked from the icy-cold sea by two teenage girls on a lilo hand-delivered a thank you card after spending a night in hospital.

Isla Noble, 15, and sister Eilidh, 14, were at Fraserburgh beach in Aberdeenshire on Monday afternoon with their family when they spotted a man with a young boy on his shoulders calling for help.

During the rescue, the girls called the coastguard for help.

They said the man, named Phil, was turning blue when they pulled him out of the water and "froth" was coming out of his mouth.

His son was uninjured.

On Tuesday night, Phil said he wanted to express his gratitude to the two girls and asked them what had happened when they had rescued him.

He told the girls and their mother Lisa that after a night in hospital, he had been discharged that afternoon and felt fine.

He wanted to thank them personally because his children still had a dad to go home to.

Lisa said "It was really good for the girls to see Phil and they were really pleased that he looked so fit and well and had made a full recovery."

Describing the incident, Isla told STV News: "I didn't really think about it really, I just had to get out. I didn't really stop and think about it.

"The adrenaline just kind of kicked in. I heard them starting to shout 'help', you could see them in the water and I just thought 'get out'.

"I got the wee boy on the lilo and then the man was hanging onto the lilo with his head out of the water and then I could only use one arm to hold onto the wee boy.

"I can't quite believe it, I'm just glad that I could help."

During the rescue, the Fraserburgh Academy pupils were assisted by Keith Gray and nurse Sophie Ross, who had also been walking on the beach when she heard cries for help.

She said: "The young lass had pulled the fellow out of the water and he was on the lilo.

"We put him in the recovery position and got him to cough up some sea water, checked his pulse and breathing and kept the coastguard up-to-date with his condition until they arrived."

A post on the RNLI Fraserburgh Lifeboat Facebook page praised the actions of the girls for starting a rescue effort straight away.

It said: "Once again the dangers of swimming in our seas have been highlighted and we advise everyone to be very careful when having fun at the coast.

"Isla and Elidh and Keith did brilliant. The girls, for being so young and springing into action and having the presence of mind to phone the coastguard and calmly give them the details of the incident, enabled the emergency services including ourselves to respond and arrive so quickly.

"Make no mistake their presence and actions today made all the difference. They all deserve medals."