Durham Branch, Royal National Lifeboat Institution ( RNLI )
Chilton Moor, UK
The RNLI is a registered charity that has saved lives at sea for over 190 years. It provides a 24 hour on-call service which covers Search and Rescue requirements out to 100 miles from the coast of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It also provides a seasonal beach lifeguard service (from approximately Easter to October) on over 200 beaches around the UK. The RNLI is independent of Government and relies on voluntary contributions and legacies for its income. We have 238 lifeboat stations and 444 lifeboats, both on station and in the relief fleet. We have 4,800 lifeboat crew members, mostly volunteers and over 146,000 lives have been saved since 1824. The busiest stations on the north east coast last year were Tynemouth and Sunderland. In 2014 a lifeboat rescued someone every hour throughout the year and a Lifeguard assisted someone every half an hour throughout the year. And if you were wondering how much the service costs to run, it is £6 every second, or £200million each year! Durham Branch, RNLI is based in Durham but covers a wide geographical area including Durham, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, Newton Aycliffe, Seaham, Washington and as there is no Branch based in Newcastle, we also cover much of Newcastle. Nowadays we concentrate mainly on Community Presentations and fundraising with Betty's 5p Pots. We also work closely with other branches, guilds and stations to help them with their fundraising events where possible. Our fundraising activities (over 650 events, activities and Community Presentations since 2002) have contributed to Durham Branch raising over £550,000 . Betty's 5p Pots are currently supported by some 170 local businesses, groups and organisations and have raised over £270,000 of this. Because of the local success, the RNLI has rolled it out as a national fundraising method - including our amount, the total raised nationally is now over £650,000. Durham Branch is a multi award winning fundraising branch, with our Hon. Secretary receiving 12 awards for his fundraising, including being shortlisted for Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year (2017 National Fundraising Awards); Winner - Volunteer of the Year (2019 North East Charity Awards); receiving his 40 year RNLI Long Service Award and being awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2024 New Year's Honours List.
What we've received