Lifeboat charity RNLI has received a £20,000 donation from a man they rescued when he was a teenager.

Richard Tookey was just 14-years-old when Shoreham RNLI rescued him and his family from their stricken yacht in 1948.

Mr Tookey decided to donate the money, 65 years later, as a way of saying thank you to the charity.

Shoreham RNLI will use the money for fuelling the station’s two lifeboats over the next five years.

Shoreham Lifeboat operations manager Keith Phelps told the Shoreham Herald: “It was great to meet Richard Tookey, hearing his story was like reliving a great piece of the station’s history.
“We took him out for a ride on the current lifeboat, which he enjoyed much more than his first trip all those years ago.”

Mr Tookey, who now lives in South Africa, was on board the yacht Gull in heavy seas and swell on August 8, 1948 when the sails became torn.

The coastguard sent the Shoreham lifeboat to help the 14-ton-yacht.

All six of the crew on board were rescued and taken ashore at Newhaven.

Image from the Shoreham Herald

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