A TEENAGE dancer aboard the doomed Costa Corcordia made a ‘last call’ home to loved ones in Streetly before springing into action to help save the lives of terrified passengers.

James Thomas, from Sutton Coldfield, feared he would die when the ship tilted on its side.

The 19-year old, who boarded the cruise liner in August last year as a stand-in performer, said he was ‘thankful to be alive’ but the scenes of chaos and panic would haunt him forever.

He told the Birmingham Mail: "There were seven short blasts on the tannoy followed by a long one, which means emergency, get to your lifeboats, so I knew it was bad.

"We were being lifted higher and higher, then the sound was just like the Titanic, it’s haunting.

"At that point I decided to make a last call home to my mum and it was heartbreaking. I said ‘mum I am so scared’. I said ‘just so you know, we are almost on our side, I am scared’. I was blubbering like a baby."

Mum Jayne, 48, described the harrowing moment: "I told him to concentrate and listen to orders, I asked ‘are wearing warm clothes? Do you have your life jacket? Have you done this?

"Then I did the mummy bit ‘are you frightened?’ and that was the worst thing I could have said. When he replied ‘yes’ he started crying and then I did.

"He is not a blubberer by any means, I realised at that point he was genuinely frightened and something awful was happening. Then I said ‘come on now you have to get off the phone and follow instructions’"

But there were no instructions to follow; James, a former Streetly School pupil, and his fellow dancers had to take control of their own destiny.