A DAREDEVIL mother has taken the plunge to raise money for the medical staff who are caring for her diabetic daughter.

Yesterday, Gail Hall, of Coulby Newham, bravely allowed herself to be strapped into a helicopter simulator, which was ditched into three metres of wind-lashed water.

She then had to make her underwater escape to raise £2,000 for South Cleveland General Hospital, where her seven-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, is being treated.

The stunt took place at the Nutec Centre for Safety, Haverton Hill, near Billingham, and was Mrs Hall's way of saying thank you to the hospital staff who are treating her daughter.

Elizabeth will need continual hospital care until she is 16, and it was her bravery that inspired her mother's challenge.

Mrs Hall said: "When I think about what she has been through, the fact that, throughout it all, the thing utmost on her mind was us rather than herself.

"At the age of just seven she can deliver her own insulin injections, so what I am going to do is nothing in comparison."

The Mets 40 helicopter simulator which Mrs Hall used for her fundraising is normally used by offshore firm Nutec to train workers to escape from aircraft in the event of one ditching into the sea.