THE family of 88-year-old granddad Jack Platt, who died hours after being found following a two day search, have thanked “the amazing St Helens people who helped find him.”

Granddad-of-six Jack, who went missing from Reeve Court Retirement Village on Saturday, July 21, was found next to a lake in Waterside Village just after 3pm on Monday, July 23 following a community led search.

Hundreds of residents from the town set out to find the former army veteran from Rainhill, who suffered from dementia, creating search parties covering areas of the borough to find him and sharing updates on social media.

When he was found he was partly submerged in the lake suffering with hypothermia, and was taken to hospital following an hour long rescue from emergency services.

However at 10.30pm that night, his family announced his death via a statement on the Find Jack Platt Facebook page, thanking those who helped find him by saying “our small town rallied together to help a man that they’d never met or even heard about.”

Speaking to the Star, Jack’s son John Platt, 43 from Rainhill, said: “When you find out something like that it’s really frightening and helpless when you can’t find someone whose just out there and you don’t know how to make a difference then suddenly we asked for help and the response from St Helens people was just phenomenal.

"It was a frightening time but it took away the fear that we weren’t on our own anymore - the people from St Helens were with us.

"People were telling me they were looking and had leaflets and we hadn’t asked them for that they just did it and decided they would give up their family time to help us and find my dad.

"The response we received was immense, we put it out on Saturday and put another post out on Sunday for people to turn up at Tesco to organise a search. We expected 20 to 30 people and around 200 people turned up, many of which I hadn’t met before.

"We had organised a close search on Monday of where we felt he may have gone and we were out when we got the call to say that he had been found by a genuinely lovely man who had gone to the area of his own choice because he had fond memories of the area as a kid and he just happened to find him there.

"We were worried we wouldn’t find him but we did it, all together we found him.

"That was a big thing for us as we expected that with him being out for two days and being an old man that we would have to deal with him maybe having passed away on his own and I couldn’t have handled that, but to get him and talk to him and be with him at the end I’m just incredibly grateful for that.

"We wouldn’t have looked there it was completely down to the fact that people were out looking for him, telling other people and the word got out there. That to me, despite the sadness, is just phenomenal.

"We hear a lot of negative stuff about social media but by using it the amazing St Helens people helped find him.

"It’s incredibly touching when something has affected you and your family, because you’ve lost a dad, father-in-law, granddad etc but you think that is it, so when we put out the post (that Jack had died) we didn’t expect that the news would affect others but we have been amazed at the messages and comments of support we have received.

"My dad was a humble and respectful gentleman and I think he would have been mortified at all of this attention so it’s quite ironic.

"But he was proud of being from St Helens and even when people asked where he was from, he didn’t say Liverpool because many people don’t know this town, he would always say St Helens and explain it.

"There’s so many people we want to thank from the running groups, people out looking in groups, cycling groups changing their routes and the police - who I’ve always had a high opinion of but they do a great job and even down to the logistics of getting him out of where he was found.

"When we spoke to people and said Dad passed away people say I’m really sorry and it is sad but if you told me on Sunday that we’d get to bring him back and be with him then I’d have happily paid for that, so it is sad that dad is gone but we got our win, we got the best result we could have got because people pulled together across the town.

"St Helens gets a bad rap from time to time but it would be nice to stop for a minute because we as a town we did something we had no hope of achieving.

"It was a challenge that the professionals struggled with, but we pulled together and found my dad and that’s something I can’t thank them enough for.

"We were with him, we found him, we can’t put a price on that."

More than 7,600 people left tributes to Jack, who was soon to become a great granddad for the first time, many of which praised the search effort.

Rebecca Arlington via Facebook said: “The dignity and strength with which you conducted the search for your dad was flawless and inspired the magnanimous help from all the kind hearted friends and strangers that worked to bring your dad home.

“I’m so sorry it didn’t have the complete happy ending we all wished for but in its own way brought a community together”

Kathy Duncan added: “I was so sorry to hear of Jack’s passing but was relieved that you had found him. It was heartwarming to read how everyone came together.

"Your dad brought a community together although he didn’t know it.”