Gail Hall may not be a typical daredevil, but when it comes to saying thanks to doctors and nurses for caring for her diabetic daughter she is ready for anything.

In a week's time, she will be strapped into a helicopter stimulator, which will then be ditched into three metres of wave and wind-lashed water requiring her to escape underwater.

The stunt will take place at the Nutec Centre for Safety, Haverton Hill, near Billingham, next Friday. Mrs Hall hopes to raise £2,000 for South Cleveland General Hospital, where her seven-year-old daughter, Elizabeth is being treated for diabetes.

Mrs Hall, of Coulby Newham, said: "I'm not exactly a small woman and I'm the furthest thing from a daredevil, but I believe staff at the hospital saved my little girl and I wanted to say thank you in a special way.

"What more special way is there than being plunged underwater in a ditched helicopter? It's a bit different to a sponsored walk.

"Elizabeth will continue to receive hospital care until she is 16. 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, that at the age of seven she can deliver her own insulin injections, then what I am going to do is nothing in comparison.

"There was a time when I thought I might lose her and my whole perspective on life changed.

"Twelve months ago I could not have even considered doing something like this," she said.

The Mets 40 helicopter stimulator is used by Nutec to train offshore workers in techniques to escape underwater from an aircraft that has ditched into the sea.