A 22-year-old member of the volunteer lifeboat crew in Lyme Regis won a top award at the local RNLI’s Christmas party on Saturday, (December 9).

Sam Ellis qualified as the first crew member in Lyme Regis – and possibly anywhere in the RNLI – to become navigator of an inshore lifeboat. Making the award of Crew’s Crew, lifeboat training co-ordinator Jon Broome spoke of his pride in Sam Ellis’s achievement since the new position was rolled out in the RNLI only in March of this year.

Crew members, their families and friends held the party at the Harbour Inn and heard long serving volunteer Elliott Herbert announce that since 2018 the lifeboat had launched 194 times, 100 people had been helped to safety and five lives had been saved. So far this year the crew have answered 54 calls for help which is close to an annual record.

Long service medals were presented to three members of the lifeboat crew who between them have volunteered for 70 years, Andy Butterfield.

The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. Powered primarily by donations from members of the public, the search and rescue service has been saving lives for nearly 200 years.

They are a charity founded upon and driven by values of selflessness, courage, dependability and trustworthiness, with volunteers at the heart. Values shared by generations of supporters who have powered lifesaving work for almost 200 years.

The vast majority of RNLI people are volunteers - ordinary people doing extraordinary things - supported by expert staff, all working together to help communities at home and abroad save lives.

The RNLI relies on thousands of dedicated volunteers to run our lifesaving service. Separate from the coastguard and independent of government, they are a charity with one aim – to save every one.