The League of Friends of Wallasey Hospitals have raised a magnificent £5,000 towards the RNLI New Brighton lifeboat stations £50,000 Crew Training and Equipment appeal launched earlier this year.
The 20 volunteers of The League of Friends who are based at Walk-In Centre at Victoria Central Hospital, Mill Lane, Wallasey provide a welcome range of tea, toast and snacks to visitors to the Minor Injuries Department.
Secretary of the League of Friends Gill Bunting said ‘ We have been running since the early 70′s and currently raise funds through public donations which we use to provide equipment for the hospital plus we also donate to other local charities. This year in addition to supplying new chairs to the Blood Department we have supported St John’s Hospice. When we heard about the equipment and training appeal for our local lifeboat station we felt we just needed to support them as their volunteers do a great job often in difficult circumstances. The RNLI are a similar organisation to ourselves relying on a generous public to carry out their work’
Chairman of the New Brighton Lifeboat Station, Frank Brereton on receiving the cheque for £5,000 said ‘ We are honoured to receive such a donation to our appeal and it takes us well on the way to reaching our £50,000 goal. Its great to know that the unselfish efforts of our volunteers are so appreciated, especially by voluntary organisations like the League of Friends who do such a great job in the community. Ours is a very busy station with 59 call outs so far this year for our inshore lifeboat Charles Dibdin and hovercraft Hurley Spirit along with our regular training sessions it takes a high toll on the crews personal equipment. In addition the nature and variety of call outs requires extensive and specialist training to enable our volunteers to deal with whatever they are faced with, often in a very demanding environment – it does not come cheap’.
Individuals, community organisations, businesses and schools are all being encouraged to help the fundraising campaign. For more information and to donate, call the RNLI on 0161 787 8779 or email north@rnli.org.uk