A VOLUNTEER coastguard has launched a heartfelt appeal after losing a treasured earring on a Cornish beach – a piece of jewellery that once belonged to her late mother.

Ruth Kearns-Smith lost one of the simple gold hoop earrings during water rescue training in the surf at Looe beach while volunteering with HM Coastguard.

The 24-year-old, who lives in Plymouth and studies at University of Plymouth, says the jewellery is priceless to her – not because of its value, but because of the memories it carries.

The everyday gold hoops once belonged to her mum, Alison, who wore them constantly for decades.

“Almost every photo I have of her, she’s wearing those earrings,” Ruth said. “Birthdays, Christmas, family photos – they were just always there.”

During a recent coastguard training session, volunteers were practising swim rescue techniques in rough surf when the earring disappeared.

“I got absolutely battered by the waves,” she said. “In the middle of it I suddenly had this gut feeling it had gone. I felt my ear and it just wasn’t there.”

The loss has been particularly painful because the earrings became one of Ruth’s most cherished connections to her mum, who died in 2022 at the age of 54.

While the hoops are simple in design, they were a signature part of her mother’s look. She rarely went without jewellery — wearing gold rings on nearly every finger and multiple hoops in each ear.

“As a kid I always knew when she was coming upstairs because I could hear her rings tapping against the bannister,” Ruth recalled.

Like many daughters, Ruth eventually began helping herself to items from her mum’s wardrobe.

“I must have been about 12 or 13,” she said. “I remember seeing the earrings on her bedside table, thinking they matched my outfit, and just borrowing them. I never really gave them back.”

For the past decade, the hoops have barely left her ears.

“I wear them everywhere – to the gym, swimming, even in the sea,” she said. “They’ve just become part of me.”

After her mother’s death, their significance deepened even further. While looking through family photos, Ruth discovered her mum had been wearing the same earrings when she gave birth to her.

“That meant the world to me,” said Ruth, who grew up in Cornwall and has always had a close connection to the sea, spending much of her childhood sailing competitively. She now balances her nursing studies with work as a first responder while also volunteering with HM Coastguard.

However, it was during that training exercise in the waves at Looe that the sentimental piece vanished. Since then, she has turned to social media in the hope someone might find it. As yet, the missing earring has yet to be found. Indeed, it may now be buried beneath the sand or washed out to sea.

Still, Ruth refuses to give up hope and she is offering a £200 reward for its return and says if it never reappears, she hopes to have a replica made using the remaining hoop.