Dedicated RNLI pair step down from team

A mother and daughter who spearheaded a campaign to raise £200,000 for a new lifeboat are stepping down from their roles '“ but insist they are leaving on a high.
Katrina Cassidy, left, with her mother Eleanor.
Picture by Jane ColtmanKatrina Cassidy, left, with her mother Eleanor.
Picture by Jane Coltman
Katrina Cassidy, left, with her mother Eleanor. Picture by Jane Coltman

Katrina Cassidy and mum Eleanor were at the helm of the recent campaign to help purchase a £2million state-of-the-art Shannon-class vessel.

Now, after the successful money-making efforts and the arrival of the boat to the town last month, the dedicated pair have retired from Amble Lifeboat Fund-raisers (ALF).

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Katrina joined the fund-raising committee shortly after moving to Amble in 2001. She became treasurer in 2015 and then chairman shortly after. Eleanor has been vice-chairman for ‘umpteen years.’

The pair are grateful to everyone who has supported ALF and admit they were blown away by people’s efforts to back the £200,000 Shannon appeal, which launched in July 2014 and was smashed in June of this year – one month ahead of schedule.

The campaign was the beneficiary of the Northumberland Gazette Jam Jar Army appeal in 2015.

Katrina said: “It gives you a warm feeling, when in this day and age when people are scrambling for money, you see the little’uns coming in with their jam jars of pennies.

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“We achieved what we set out to do and in fact, we have raised £227,000 as part of the appeal and money is still coming in. The extra money will be used for training and extra equipment.”

Eleanor added: “People’s generosity was breathtaking; we even got three gold sovereigns in the collection boxes.

“Amble folks are always supporting us. In some ways, we feel the Shannon partly belongs to us all. I cried when she arrived in the town.”