The incredible true story of how Sunderland captain Luke O'Nien saved dog's life on Seaburn beach

Luke O'Nien's heroic efforts in saving a dog's life on a Sunderland beach last week have been labelled 'unbelievable' by his owner.

Just two days before the Sunderland captain started against Coventry City in the Championship, O'Nien was one of a group of passersby that helped to save a 12-year-old German pointer named Elmo after the dog had got into trouble on Seaburn beach.

The incident occurred Thursday evening as O'Nien was out walking with his young family on the beach close to the cliffs before reaching Whitburn.

Eyewitnesses reported that an elderly dog was swimming in the sea but ran into difficulties and had to be pulled out of the water by the dog's owner. Passers-by described a young man running over to help the woman owner with O'Nien pumping the dog's chest until the pooch coughed up seawater and began to breathe again.

After accounts of the incident circulated on social media, The Echo reached out to Sunderland AFC, who confirmed the story. And now The Echo has heard the story from Elmo's owner, Angela Wood, who says the rescue wouldn't have been successful without O'Nien and that she owes her dog's life to him.

“I had taken him down swimming as he is a retired German pointer," Angela told The Echo. "He is a retired working dog and he has always swum so I decided to take him for a swim that night. It was just the fourth throw of the ball in. He likes to swim out a bit and I make the throw shorter every time.

“He was chewing the ball which he doesn’t normally do but then he lost the ball, he was swimming around in a circle to find it. Suddenly his head went down and his back end went up and he was floating. I just knew something had happened. I didn’t know if he had a heart attack as his swimming had been fine.

“I have been thinking about it since Thursday night and I just don’t know if he had got cramp or had a heart attack even the vets can’t really explain it. You just know when something isn’t right, I just ran straight in to get him. He is 12-years-old and 45 kilograms and I had to drag him back to shore by his collar.

“As I got him out of the water he was crying but then he gave a huge sigh and I thought he had died. As I got him up, which I don’t know how I did as he’s a tonne weight, I was exhausted, this lady came over and tried to help. I didn’t really know what to do so I just started pumping his chest. I just thought that I needed to push the fluid out.

“I didn’t know what I was doing really. There was foam coming out of his mouth with no water but then suddenly a man in white shorts came and took over pumping his chest. I was trying but I only have so much strength. He just kept pumping and pumping, he also told me to Google to see if we were doing the right thing but I was too all over the place to do it properly.

“All of a sudden, the water came up and Elmo came around. Luke O’Nien, who I didn’t realise who it was at the time, kept pushing and the dog came around. We stood him up to get his blood circulation going, he was a bit bemused. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t have pushed the water out of him the way Luke did because of the strength he had.

“We got the dog up to Minchella’s and Luke was still there waiting around to make sure everything was okay and the young girl who had seen me at the beginning along with two other guys waited with me for my husband to arrive. The staff at Minchella’s gave us water and helped too, which was really good of them."

Unfortunately, Elmo wasn’t quite out of the woods and struggled again during the night but his now steadily improving and returning to his normal self, says his owner. After a visit to the vet, it was confirmed that there was no water left in his lungs and Elmo was instructed to take it easy.

“So far he is back to his normal self and seems fine! I don’t think he would have survived without Luke there. He was marvellous. I can’t thank Luke and everyone there enough. Someone had said it was Luke O’Nien but I didn’t really know who he was. It is brilliant how people can help you.

“I was just there by myself but the lady came and then two men and then Luke. I didn’t realise at the time that Luke was there with his family. I just can’t believe how much he would do for my dog, to help and stay there and be so kind. In this day in age, you sometimes get a bit despondent with everything that happened but he was just marvellous.

“I want to try and thank him with a letter or card as he saved Elmo’s life. I was worried because Luke was on the beach with his family and I hope his kids weren’t too scared by everything that was happening. I was in so much shock that I didn’t know if I thanked people enough when I was there.

"I am just so grateful, I can’t even really speak to put it into words, we’re just so glad he is back with us. It is just unbelievable."