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Welcome

Thank you for everything you’ve done to help our lifesavers this year. I hope you managed to experience one or more of the RNLI’s 200th anniversary celebrations for yourself. But as 2025 beckons, it’s time to look to the future and the next phase of our lifesaving journey together.

What better way to start than to meet some of the inspirational young lifesavers at the heart of the RNLI! Like Apprentice Jack and Lifeboat Coxswain Becky (opposite), and Crew Member Sarah (page 6).

You may recognise the dramatic rescue on page 4 from our Christmas Appeal. It’s a reminder that, with your support, volunteer crews will be on call throughout the festive season. Ready to give up their time to rescue people they don’t know so that loved ones can be together.

Whatever festivities you’re planning for your Christmas and New Year, we hope you have a safe and happy holiday.

Coxswain Becky

Coming from a proud line of lifeboat volunteers, Becky Cannon joined the Ramsgate crew aged 17. Seven years on, she’s the youngest ever female coxswain of an RNLI all-weather lifeboat. Would she be happy for her own kids to continue the family tradition? ‘Absolutely!’ she says. ‘RNLI training teaches you great skills, confidence, teamwork and makes you part of something meaningful. Who wouldn’t want that for their children?’

Apprentice Jack

Rob Westcott

Your RNLI Team

Email: your_rnli@rnli.org.uk

Jack Domoney is another who’s dedicating his time to saving lives at sea. In his fourth and final year as a marine engineer apprentice at the RNLI, Jack is learning to build and maintain the lifeboats that volunteers like Becky rely on to get them home safe. ‘I’m proud to talk about working for the RNLI,’ says Jack. ‘The tasks I found challenging a couple of years ago have become second nature. I’m excited to see what else I can achieve.’

WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT PEOPLE LIKE YOU: How would you like to hear from us?

We’re so grateful for the support you have shown for the RNLI –it all helps save lives. But if you would rather not hear from us, or would like to change how we contact you, please get in touch. Just call 0300 300 9918 (from the UK), 01 511 9837 (from Ireland), or +44 1202 663234 (from any other country) on weekdays, 8am–6pm, go to RNLI.org/preferences or write to our Supporter Experience Team, RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, BH15 1HZ.

Cover photo: Marine Engineer Apprentice Jack Domoney

Williams

RNLI TO THE RESCUE

First shout

PORTPATRICK | 22 JUNE 2024

Two kayakers and their dog were spotted in trouble 2½ miles offshore by a birdwatcher, who immediately raised the alarm. Portpatrick’s new Shannon class lifeboat was called into action for the first time, together with Stranraer’s D class lifeboat, and a search and rescue helicopter. Lifeboat crews got all three home safely, while a third kayaker – with another dog onboard – also safely made it ashore.

Lifesaving call

FLEETWOOD | 23 JULY 2024

Broken boom

EXMOUTH | 27 JUNE 2024

When his rigging snapped in half, a windsurfer was left powerless and drifting out to sea. Fortunately, he had a means of calling for help and could give his position to the Coastguard. It took less than a quarter of an hour for Exmouth’s inshore lifeboat crew to find him, a few miles south of Orcombe Point. After they gave him the OK, he was reunited with his family.

A dogwalker had a narrow escape after he and his uncle’s dog became cut off by a fast incoming tide. Knee deep in water, but with his phone thankfully still dry, he called 999 and asked for the Coastguard. That call proved a lifesaver. By the time Fleetwood’s inshore lifeboat crew reached them a short while later, the water had risen up around the man’s neck.

ON CALL CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

With a man overboard in freezing seas, lifeboat crews knew they had to find him quickly

Andy Gavan, Coxswain of Barry Dock lifeboat, was getting ready to party on 26 December 2023 when the sound of his crew pager stopped him in his tracks. A man was out at sea, in the water, alone and far from his loved ones, relying on Andy’s help.

During a scheduled training session for a rowing event, a powerful current had tipped solo rower Tom Skinner out of his boat. He managed to radio for help, but he was left drifting in dangerously cold water for the best

Barry Dock’s Trent class lifeboat Inner Wheel II at sea in rough conditions

part of an hour, not knowing if or when help would arrive.

Barry Dock lifeboat crew joined a crew from Penarth RNLI and a Coastguard helicopter in an urgent search to find Tom. Andy and his crew mates calculated that he would have drifted 2 or 3 miles west in the choppy tidal flow of the Bristol Channel, so that’s where they began their search. And it wasn’t long before they spotted something in the water.

Struggling to breathe

His body was beginning to seize up in the ice-cold water so Tom didn’t notice the big orange lifeboat behind him, or the preparations the crew were making to lift him to safety. He remembers the feeling of relief at being found, and concern that he wasn’t out of trouble yet. ‘I couldn’t move my arms and was really struggling to breathe.’

Recognising the signs of hypothermia and water inhalation, the lifeboat crew immediately began giving him casualty care, wrapping him in blankets and putting him on oxygen.

‘Rescues

like this really stay with you’

Back at the lifeboat station, Barry Dock volunteers were joined by two paramedics from the Penarth lifeboat, and together they continued to work on Tom and get him warm. By the time the ambulance arrived, he was alert and chatting.

‘Rescues like this really stay with you,’ says Andy. ‘They remind us why we put so much into our training, and why it’s so important to work together as a team with our fellow lifeboat crews and other emergency services.’ ■

Tom

‘It becomes difficult to move or think properly in water that cold. I started to think this might be it’

Andy

‘In winter the water is extremely cold. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was unconscious’

‘He was pale and cold to touch, beyond shivering’

Photos: Stephen Duncombe, RNLI/(Harrison Bates, Nigel Millard)

Skinner Rower

Gavan Coxswain, Barry Dock RNLI

Nic Anderson Crew Member and paramedic, Penarth RNLI

PUNCHING THROUGH

Sarah Patterson knows what it’s like to step out of her comfort zone. After winning a beauty competition, she went on to became the youngest member of Peterhead’s lifeboat crew. Sarah hopes her story will inspire other young women to join their local crew

I entered Miss European Global in October 2022. I had no intentions of winning it. I just said to myself: ‘I’ll do it, I’ll put myself out of my comfort zone. If I don’t like it, I don’t like it – I can always come home.’ In future, I could say ‘I actually tried this and it wasn’t for me’ or ‘I tried it and I loved it, and I’d like to do more’.

At the gala dinner everybody was rattling off that they were nurses, health care

‘Sometimes you just have to do it for those other people who are a bit sceptical or unsure’

workers or in marketing, stuff like that. So, anyway, I stood up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Sarah, I’m 22. I’m a bar manager and a volunteer on the lifeboat.’ People from other countries just kind of looked at me as if to say ‘What is that? People who were able to understand what I was saying, were like: ‘Oh wow, that’s amazing!’

I’d like to think the guys on the crew are all very proud of me. I look up to them like big brothers or dads. Although they wind me up, like a big brother would, they do take me under their wings. They’re very good to me.

The RNLI has definitely helped my confidence, especially in meeting new people and being able to talk. For example, going to a shout and having to speak to somebody you don’t know, and having to make sure what you’re saying is OK. Before, I wouldn’t really go into shops myself. I’d always make my mum or my brother come with me – some sort of anxiety or nervousness maybe. But when I’m with the others on the boat, I know that if I am struggling they’ll just say something, and I’m like OK, and I’ll be able to create a conversation off that. I definitely think it’s who you’re surrounded with that helps a lot with your confidence.

To a young woman who is considering joining the RNLI, and thinking: ‘Maybe I’m not good enough to be there’ or ‘I’m a girl, I can’t do that’, I would say just go for it. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You’re not the only person feeling like that. There are definitely other people who are feeling the same. And sometimes you just have to step out your box and do it for those other people who are a bit sceptical or unsure – and be a role model for them. ■