Grant pays for sea survival course

Monday 16th April 2012

New starters at a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station have put their training to good use.

When Peter Leslie and Michael Brown, from Newbiggin lifeboat station, in Northumberland, travelled to the RNLI Lifeboat College in Poole, Dorset, for a trainee crew course they ended up in a real-life emergency.

Michael, 29, who works as an IT Consultant, said: "During the course, we became part of a genuine rescue effort after a person fell into the water from the quayside. We were nearby at the time and so helped get the person to safety."

Part of their course focuses on sea survival, and is funded by The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust, an independent charity which funds work to enhance the safety of life and property at sea, on land and in the air.

The trust is funding the sea survival element of the nationwide trainee crew course for five years to December 2015, and is worth about £1.5 million to the RNLI.

Michael said: "Peter and I had an intensive week of training in the very best of environments that has allowed us to further develop skills that we have gained during our operational time with the RNLI at Newbiggin."

Gareth Wilson, RNLI training divisional inspector in the North, said: "The support given by The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust is hugely important to the RNLI.

"This training equips volunteers with essential sea survival skills; providing them with the courage, poise and self-confidence to save lives even in the most perilous seas."

Peter, 21, has also put his training to use back in Northumberland as part of a RNLI Newbiggin crew which attended to a small fishing boat which had broken down.

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