Chef’s special trip – Mark Hix and his Lyme Regis head chef Lin Pidsley aboard the lifeboat. Photo Richard Horobin.

Cash donations on the menu for Lyme Regis RNLI

Rotarians Jim Mosely and Guy Hayden present a cheque for £1,500 to the Lyme Regis lifeboat crew. Photo Richard Horobin.

Top chef Mark Hix and the Rotary Club of Lyme Regis served up two generous donations to the town’s RNLI charity yesterday (Sunday).

Rotarians presented a cheque for £1,500, half of the record collection at the now legendary Lyme Lunge, on New Year’s Day.

A best-ever 200 fancy dressed ‘lungers’ ran into the sea and hundreds of spectators gave cash to be shared between the RNLI and Shelterbox.

Rotarian Jim Mosely, a former lifeboat crew member, and the club’s president-elect, Guy Hayden, handed the cheque to crewmen during Sunday’s lifeboat training session.

Meanwhile gourmet cook Mark Hix and the new head chef at his Lyme Regis restaurant, Lin Pidsley, presented a cheque for £203.67, proceeds from sales of ‘housewater’.

Mark, a regular supporter of the RNLI, said he would be making a quarterly donation, and as a ‘thank you’ he was taken on a 30 minute trip aboard the lifeboat.

Afterwards, he said:”That was my first trip in a lifeboat. It was a little lumpy out there, but it was a fantastic experience.”