RNLI 'will always respond', even at Christmas

Susan Beaton is a helm at RNLI Portishead

A volunteer from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) said rescue teams "will always respond" to missions, even if it interrupts their Christmas celebrations.

Susan Beaton, a helm at RNLI Portishead, said the festive period can be "quite busy" because many people head down to the coast to swim or sail on Christmas Day.

Over the 2023 festive period, crews covering the South West were deployed 17 times to rescue those who were in danger in the water.

Tom Mansell, regional operations lead for the region, said: "We're so proud of our volunteers who are committed to saving lives at sea 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

Ms Beaton is just one of the volunteers around the country who is on call on Christmas Day.

"There's no drinking... there's a little bit of relaxing, but you are waiting for that pager to go off and potentially leave your family, friends, your Christmas dinner, to go help somebody in need," she said.

She added that on call volunteers have to stay local to their stations in case they are deployed on a mission, meaning she will not be able to spend the day at home with her family in Scotland.

Crews operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

On Christmas Day a few years ago, Ms Benton was called at about 23:50 GMT when somebody got into difficulty while out swimming.

"Luckily that person was absolutely fine and by the time we got there they'd recovered themselves, but you're still willing to respond and go out into the dark and cold to help somebody," she said.

This year, the RNLI celebrated 200 years of saving lives at sea.

Since it was founded, more than 146,000 people have been rescued.

Ms Benton advised anybody planning to go in the water over the festive period to be prepared with lifejackets, wet suits and the right equipment to stay safe.

"If you find yourself in trouble, always call 999 and ask for the coastguard.

"If it's another person that's in trouble or a family pet, please don't go into the water yourself and put yourself at risk.

"We will always respond."