Busiest year ever for RNLI’s lifeboats and lifeguards

For the first time in their 186 year history, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) launched their lifeboats over 9,000 times last year.

That’s according to news statistics released today as a prelude to the charity’s biggest annual day of fundraising this Friday, SOS Day.

In the past year volunteer lifeboat crews across the UK and Ireland launched a total of 9,154 times, rescuing 8,186 people. The charity’s lifeguards also had their busiest year, responding to 13,588 incidents and assisting 15,954 people – the highest number since the service began in 2001. 

RNLI Operations Director, Michael Vlasto, says: “The record breaking figures in 2009 may be, in part, due to people holidaying at home in the UK and Ireland instead of planning holidays abroad during last year’s financial uncertainty.”

The RNLI, a charity that is independent of Government and reliant on donations, is calling on the public to respond to its own call for help by supporting RNLI SOS Day this week on Friday, 29 January. RNLI Operations Director, Michael Vlasto, says by raising funds the public will be helping the RNLI to go on saving lives in what the charity predicts will be the most difficult year since the current economic downturn began.

He comments: “In a year that many families and companies are feeling less financially secure, I hope the way our volunteer crews and lifeguards help the public during times of personal or community crisis motivates them to get involved in SOS Day fundraising events or to organise one of their own.”

The RNLI’s rescue service is not confined to the beach or open sea. During the November floods in Cumbria the RNLI’s Flood Rescue Team helped hundreds of Cockermouth’s residents reach safety, showing that the RNLI charity can touch the lives of anyone at any time, whether at the coast or even in their own homes if the worst happens during a flood emergency.

The busiest RNLI lifeboat station overall in 2009 was Tower, on the River Thames, launching 380 times and rescuing 148 people in the capital. The busiest coastal lifeboat station in 2009 was Poole in Dorset, where the volunteer crews launched 200 times, rescuing 242 people.

Watch the video here

For more information visit www.rnli.org.uk/sos