All About The RNLI

Written by Charlotte Allen

This year, the work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has been more important than ever. Their crews have provided round-the-clock support and most of these teams are made out of volunteers, who drop whatever they’re doing in their everyday life to help save lives at sea. Averaging 24 callouts a day, they have 238 lifeboat stations and a fleet of 431 lifeboats which provide all kinds of support- from daring rescues to escorting people safely to shore.

Every time the teams receive a callout, they have to make the decision over whether to launch the lifeboat or not. Once the decision is made, the crew is paged and the volunteers drop everything- from work to friends and family. They use the information they have to formulate a response and prepare the lifeboat for launch.

Over the past few years, I have campaigned and fundraised for this charity numerous times. Every time I volunteer at one of their events, I am reminded of just how much they sacrifice every time they are paged and how eager they are to drop everything to save the life of a stranger. If you listen to their podcasts or watch the TV series, you’ll quickly get an idea of just how dedicated these volunteers are and how passionately they feel about water safety. And this year has been no different.

Even though our days of relaxing on the beach and participating in water sports may not have been possible this year, the RNLI still received many callouts as they also help patrol major waterways like the Thames. In spite of the pandemic, the volunteers never hesitated to put their lives at risk and lend a hand in these emergency situations. They have also been keeping active on social media and sharing top tips on how to keep fit and motivated during this difficult period.

I decided to write this blog because I know how hard the pandemic has hit this fantastic organisation and so it is important to raise awareness of the work that they do. I know RNLI volunteers personally- I’ve even been at half-eaten dinners because they’ve had to dash off on the bleep of their pager... If you have a spare minute, listen to their podcast, read some of their inspirational stories or even just glance at the last time your local station launched a rescue call- I’ll bet that it was very recently!

The information and pictures for this blog can be found at https://rnli.org/

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