The Rotary Club of Ely welcomed Geoffrey Heathcock as it's guest speaker last week. 

The chairman of the Cambridge Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) spoke to Rotarians at the Ely Bowls Club on March 14. 

Free from political barriers, the RNLI serves as a country-wide charity that saves lives at sea, covering the whole of the UK and Ireland. 

Geoffrey become involved with the charity in 1971 and has volunteered for the organisation continuously.

He was amazed to discover that one of his relatives had helped with the RNLI many years previously and had even been awarded a medal.

There has been much publicity about the RNLI recently for it is celebrating 200 years of existence and there was a special commemorative service at Westminster Abbey.

Over the years 146,000 people had been rescued and the average every year is 1-2,000.

It is easy to assume that the RNLI only works in the coastal regions of the countries but it is also very present in the Thames River. There are four full time life boats from Westminster to Gravesend. It has 1 – 1,500 shouts (calls to rescue) a year.

They also rescue animals ranging from dogs to dolphins or even whales. They risk their lives to rescue animals because often there will be a person who is likely to be putting themselves in danger by trying to rescue the animals themselves.

Many rescues include coming to the aid of adults or children on inflatable rafts who have been blown out to see in the English Channel, the Irish Sea or Penrith Firth, for example.

The RNLI is bound by international law and rescues anyone who is at risk on the sea – they are not bound by political will.

Volunteers have to be ready and willing to get out of bed at 3am and even after a possible 26 hours at sea they still have to clean the boat down and dry it thoroughly, ready for the next call. 

A large number of the residents in coastal towns are working people so it is particularly difficult to find willing volunteers to join the crews. It is suggested that employers should be given a subsidy to allow people at work from Monday to Friday to be volunteer crew members.

The RNLI requires £600,000 a day for survival. Their main source of donations comes from legacies and 40% of their funding comes from street collections, garden parties and other activities.

The supermarket chain, Tesco’s, allow them to raise money at their stores countrywide all during the year. The RNLI have been charity for the day at the Boat Race which was also particularly helpful in raising funds.

For more information about the RNLI, you can visit their website.