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Families kept together by the RNLI place family photos in RNLI 200th anniversary

Lifeboats News Release

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) Coast to Cobbles time capsule relay arrived at Salford Quays on Thursday 10 October after traveling down the North West coast from Silloth.

RNLI/Tom Dale

The relay has seen a specially designed time capsule pass from lifeboat to lifeboat, with each RNLI crew given the opportunity to add something before it is put on display in Lytham St Annes Lifeboat Museum.

And now the final items have been added – including two family photos of families kept together by the RNLI’s lifesavers – and to be sealed for 50 years.

Twin sisters Lola and Evie from Ellesmere Port had their lives saved when disaster struck during a holiday to Kent. They were trying out their new blow-up unicorn when they were swept out to sea by an offshore wind.

The girls’ inflatable rapidly started heading out to sea, so dad Ben Taylor swam out to what he described were just ‘two dots’ in the distance heading further out to sea. Margate RNLI lifeboat was launched along with Ramsgate RNLI, with RNLI lifeguards also joining the search.

Dad Ben was rescued by Ramsgate lifeboat first after he swam nearly three-quarters of a mile out to see to try and reach his daughters, then Evie and Lola. Fortunately, the girls been told RNLI float to live advice the previous day so knew the lifesaving technique.

Ben said: ‘We are still a family today thanks to these brave volunteers and whatever I do to repay them is never enough. I hand on heart believe my daughters would not be here today, starting college and mapping out their lives if it weren’t for the RNLI. I am forever grateful.

‘Helping the charity celebrate 200 years of saving lives and keeping families, like ours, together is something we are incredibly proud to be part of. Knowing our story will be engrained in RNLI history and will help inspire future generations is really quite something. I’m proud to put our family picture inside the time capsule as a reminder that families like ours have been spared a tragedy thanks to the selfless and brave volunteers.’

Another family kept together by the RNLI is that of Ben and Hannah Williamson and their three children from Salford. Ben was saved when he was taken out to sea on a rip current while bodyboarding while on holiday in Cornwall.

Hannah said: ‘The RNLI has kept our family together – my three kids might not have a dad if it wasn’t for them.

‘We’re forever in their debt – we didn’t realise how much they do before this happened. The charity and the work they do is so important so we’re really happy to be able to support them in their 200th anniversary.’

The event marks the RNLI’s 200th anniversary in the North West, commemorating the region’s contribution to the charity’s two centuries of saving lives at sea.

Sophie Wood, RNLI Community Manager said: ‘This event is a fantastic way to close our 200th anniversary year in the North West. We are commemorating the lifesavers of the past that have contributed to our history, celebrating our crew today, and hopefully inspiring the next generation of supporters, lifeboat volunteers and fundraisers.

‘For 200 years, we’ve relied on the generosity of everyday people – from seafaring crew to fundraisers and supporters, they’re all lifesavers and make the RNLI in the North West what it is, so this is for them.

‘It’s important that we’re connecting our people in this way and collecting mementos from each station to be sealed away for fifty years, so those crew that we inspire on this journey can look back in 2074, when the charity is 250 years old.’

The capsule will be transported via the lifeboats of the eight stations in Cumbria and Lancashire before travelling on to Albert Dock in Liverpool, where the RNLI’s three Merseyside stations and lifeguards will add their keepsakes to the capsule.

In the capsule will be an RNLI Navigational Chart plotting each leg of the journey to be signed by representatives from each station and the charity’s chief executive, crew tea and coffee lists, and RNLI clothing, among other items. Also included will be a special Notebook for the public to share thoughts, messages of support, of what the RNLI means to them today.

The journey to Liverpool, and onwards to Salford Quays will be in a Shannon class all-weather lifeboat powered by a biofuel – Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) – supplied free of charge by one of the RNLI’s fuel suppliers, Certas Energy.

The time capsule’s journey has taken 11 days from 28 September until 9 October, to ensure it reached Greater Manchester in time for the anniversary of the world’s first street collection on 10 October.

The first Lifeboat Saturday took place in the streets of Manchester on Saturday 10 October 1891, a lifeboat was paraded along the cobbles in order to drum up support for the charity following a disaster. Five years earlier, 27 men from Southport and St Anne’s died while trying to rescue sailors from the stricken vessel Mexico.

Following the lifeboat relay, the culmination of Coast to Cobbles will be a new Lifeboat Saturday, with events in Manchester and across the UK.

Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its volunteer crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives – this equates to an average of two lives saved every day for 200 years.

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

Learn more about the RNLI

For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.

Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries

Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.

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