A regional daily journalist and photographer braved a battering from wind and waves to provide live seafront coverage of Storm Doris.

Rob Stocks, of Blackpool daily The Gazette, broadcasted from the resort’s Promenade to show readers the effects of the storm first hand.

Photographer Dan Martino captured Rob’s struggles against the weather yesterday in a Facebook Live video for the newspaper’s channel on the social media site,.

As of 9am this morning the video had been viewed almost 300,000 times and shared by more than 3,600 readers, while more than 1,600 have commented on it.

Rob also wrote a first person piece on his experience which made a double page spread in today’s paper.

Deputy editor Andy Sykes said: “We saw Doris was set to hit the coast with winds of above 60mph between 11am and 1pm so we put into plan on Wednesday how we would cover it the following day. I texted Rob that night to say bring waterproofs to work in the morning – I think he knew what was coming.

“He did a splendid job and is developing into somewhat of a Facebook live star having previously covered bomb scares and football protests. Along with photographer Dan Martino he braved the weather and reported live from the prom, while staying safe.”

Andy added: “Despite being battered by the elements, he stuck to his task admirably and provided some really good info for those viewing on our Facebook feed.

“He was rewarded for his efforts with a nice hot chocolate on his return to the office.”