Bride ‘over the moon’ after volunteer diver finds wedding ring lost in Lake Windermere

Newlywed Annabelle Balchin, 22, described the moment Lake District Divers volunteer Angus Hosking retrieved the white-gold ring which is engraved with the couple’s initials from Lake Windermere in Cumbria.

Mrs Balchin, a customer services advisor at NFU Mutual, got married to Mick Balchin, 30, a canal boat builder, at Town Head Estate in Windermere on Thursday.

During the heatwave that day, they took a dip in the lake from a private jetty on the estate along with their wedding guests.

Calling from her honeymoon in Wales, Mrs Balchin said: “On Thursday it was 33C so us and all our guests decided to go for a dip in the evening.

“We were all jumping in off the jetty and my husband didn’t take his wedding ring off.

“When he was jumping in, it slid right off – he felt it slide off when he jumped off the jetty.”

The couple called Lake District Divers the next morning, and were “relieved” when Mr Hosking retrieved the ring “within minutes”.

“Within five minutes of them being in the water, they found it. We were absolutely over the moon,” Mrs Balchin, from Sedbergh, Cumbria, said.

“We tried not to panic too much, but it cost us quite a bit of money, we had it engraved, and it’s the sentimental value that came with it.

“We had just said our vows and just exchanged rings so we were literally just panicking so it was a massive relief.”

Mrs Balchin said they offered Mr Hosking payment but he would only take a donation to a gofundme account as a gesture of thanks.