Call the lifeboats ...............

I thought it was about time that you heard from the other sister!!

Apart from my husband and my gorgeous cat, Mew, the great love of my life is lifeboats. This passion began when I was a little girl and I collected used postage stamps for a Blue Peter appeal to buy inshore lifeboats.  As always they did various items on the show about the appeal and it was there that I learned that lifeboatmen were all volunteers. As a little girl I was amazed and overawed that there were people who were so selfless that they would risk their own lives to help others and there my lifetime love of the RNLI began.

If you want more information about the RNLI the website address is http://www.rnlishop.org.uk/

Whilst I lived in the Midlands I could do very little apart from be a member of Shoreline, the non sea going arm of the membership, but when I moved to Llandudno in 2002 I joined the local guild along with my husband and we were soon involved in fundraising.

I soon became Box Secretary for the guild which means that I am responsible for emptying the collecting boxes in our local shops and hotels and then paying the money into the bank.

Now that I am no longer a full time carer to our parents I take a much more active role in the fundraising.

We do not have a lifeboat shop here in Llandudno but we do have a stall on the promenade every Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. The souvenirs are kept in a little caravan which is delivered to the prom at 9am and we then put up about 8 tables and cover them with souvenirs which we then sell until 6pm and then repack the caravan ready for it to be collected. I also spend Friday afternoon helping to price the souvenirs ready for sale the following Sunday!

It is hard work but very good fun and last year we raised over £50,000 during ther season from May to September.

We have a website at http://www.llandudnolifeboat.org.uk/ so you can take a look at our boat, our crew and even us! There are plenty of photos of the guild in action on the stall!

So there you are - a bit about my love for the lifeboats - and remember that the RNLI is financed entirely by voluntary contributions (we get nothing from the government) so if you see a collecting box anywhere pop a coin in it and if you are ever in Llandudno on a Sunday in the summer pop along to the prom and say hello!

Love
Susan