THE wife of a doctor who survived a 200ft fall down a cliff with his dog said today he "shouldn't really be alive".

Chris Babbs, 53, plummeted from Little Cliff near the village of Cloughton, near Scarborough, when he tried to rescue their pet Labrador Oscar.

He was on holiday with his GP wife Sue, 52, when six-year-old Oscar disappeared from view as they walked him and their two other dogs along a narrow path.

Mrs Babbs, from Norden, Rochdale, said her husband shuffled down the precipice but then dialled 999 after she shouted to him for 15 minutes and did not get a reply.

She said: "Chris shouldn't really be alive. I think Oscar saved his life by guiding the coastguards to him with his barking.

"After I lost sight of Chris I just assumed hed had gone further along the coastline to climb back up. I didn't hear anything, I was shouting and there was no response from Chris, only Oscar.

"If I could hear the dog Chris should have been able to hear me, so that's when I called the emergency services."

The father-of-two suffered multiple fractures and was picked up by a helicopter from RAF Leconfield, near Hull, and airlifted to Scarborough General Hospital on Monday.

Mr Babbs was later transferred to intensive care at Hope Hospital in Salford where he is a consultant in gastroenterology.

His condition is said to be serious but stable.

Oscar suffered cuts to his right eye and a broken thigh, and is reported to need an operation.