DAVID Hasselhoff may have hung up his famous red swimming shorts but a group of Oxfordshire lifeguards are proving you are never to old to save lives.

The Baywatch star, who turned 65 in July, often springs to mind when people think of aquatic lifesavers but an advert encouraging older people to sign up across the county has proved to be a surprise success.

One of the new recruits, 80-year-old Brian Reed, joined the Windrush Leisure Centre in Witney five weeks ago where he has teamed up with long-standing lifeguard David Hall, 74.

Mr Reed, a former business owner, said: "I'm not really a Baywatch type of person.

"People's expectations are that lifeguards are tanned and athletic looking.

"Me and Dave are not tanned - we are athletic but we don't look it.

"We certainly don't look like David Hasselhoff."

'Better', who run 20 leisure centres across South Oxfordshire, West Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse, started the campaign after previously struggling to recruit enough lifeguards to cover the busy summer season.

The company's employer brand manager, Melanie Silverman, said the county has a lack of younger people who the company usually rely on to fill awkward hours shifts at evenings and weekends.

She said: "We had a couple of older lifeguards already working in the centres and they have always been such great members of staff - always reliable and excellent role models for the younger people.

"So we thought why aren't we doing more to target this group?

"People assume that just because you are old, then you cannot do it but it's all about fitness.

"We put our staff through a really rigorous training programme and if you can do it there's no reason why you can't be a lifeguard."

With more people recruited than planned, the campaign has been deemed such a success that it's going to be rolled out to other areas of the country.

Seven fully professional lifeguards over 60 are now working at Better sites, including the Faringdon and Windrush Leisure Centres and the company is still looking to employ more.

Mr Reed, who retired at 60 after selling his company that produced lights for cars, does three eight hour shifts a week.

The grandfather of four, who lives in Minster Lovell, came second fastest in his swimming test beating other lifeguards a quarter of his age.

He said: "I swim in the pool regularly and one day they asked me if I was going to come and try out as a lifeguard.

"They were paying so I thought I'd give it a go.

"I'm not trying to save the world, I'll be honest - it's a nice little top up for my pension. There's not many jobs for 80 year olds out there."

"I'll keep going for as long as I am capable of doing so."