Northumberland lifeboat volunteer receives accolade

David was awarded the accolade by hotel industry charity Room to Reward and will now receive a complimentary short break in a participating hotel in recognition of his dedication and often heroic efforts in the water.

This reward follows on from David’s recent nomination as ‘Volunteer of the Year’ in the Towergate Care Awards 2017. Winners of each category will be revealed at the Dorchester Hotel on Thursday, in a ceremony hosted by Denise Van Outen.

A Seahouses RNLI spokesperson said: “David has been instrumental in training new crew, attending training courses and exercises himself and responding emergency call outs in all weathers 24/7.

“One such emergency call was last summer. David responded to the pager as usual but on arrival at the boathouse he found both boats were fully crewed. Following a discussion with the duty coxswain, David offered to launch his own boat to assist in the search.

“After two hours of searching David and his son Kieran located the casualty. He had been in the water for over four hours and was barely conscious. Thanks to David’s dedication to saving lives at sea, his local area knowledge and expertise on the sea and our unique local tidal currents have saved countless lives including this casualty.”

The RNLI has saved some 140,000 lives since its foundation in 1824, at a cost of more than 600 lives lost in service.

Room to Reward’s charity director Adam Terpening commented: “David’s nomination was hugely compelling. RNLI volunteers put their lives at risk to keep us all safe in our waters. David makes an outstanding community contribution and as such to be able to acknowledge this with a short respite break has been an honour.”

‘Room to Reward’ work with many registered charities, including ‘Mencap’, ‘Macmillan Caring’, ‘Autistica’, ‘Maggie’s Cancer Centres’, ‘Hearing Dogs for the Deaf’ and ‘Wales Air Ambulance’, the programme is supporting charities to give something back to key individuals, who make such a difference to the lives of others.

If you would like to find out more about the ‘Room to Reward’ scheme you can visit www.roomtoreward.org or email Adam Terpening, Charity Director, at [email protected]