BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce has spoken of her friendship with Padstow RIB crash victim Nick Milligan, and how the news of his death left her unable to do her job.

Miss Bruce explained that the BBC had to find another presenter to read the bulletin, as she was too upset by the story.

The presenter, who has anchored Six O’Clock News and Ten O’Clock News, told Radio Times that the accident helped her to put things into perspective when she turned 50 earlier this year:

“Because such a very, very good friend of mine died very young, far from being sad about the fact that I’m 50, I think: ‘Hurray, I’m 50 – and I’m still here.’ There’s nothing like that to put everything else into perspective.”

Mr Milligan, a 51-year-old BSkyB executive, was killed in a motorboat accident off the Camel Estuary last May, when he was thrown from his RIB along with his eight-year-old daughter Emily.

Both Nick and Emily were struck when the boat circled around, and a subsequent investigation has concluded that their lives would have been saved if Mr Milligan had been wearing a killcord.