Landlocked Melton and Rutland residents continue to give generously to lifeboat charity

Members of the local branch of the Royal National Lifeboat (RNLI) run lunches, coffee mornings, car boot sales, Burns’ suppers, quizzes, collections and other fundraisers to support the volunteer crews.

The nearest RNLI lifeboat stations to this area are at Skegness, in Lincolnshire, and Hunstanton, in Norfolk, but the Rutland and Melton branch still collects thousands of pounds for the charity every year.

Branch organiser, Laura Reekie, told the Melton Times: “The locals here support the RNLI very well, considering we are as far from the coast as we are, but we are very aware that there are now many more very worthwhile charities in this area and we are living in much more straightened times when money is scarce.”

The RNLI has had some negative publicity in the last week with online criticism from Reform UK politicians and other people over crews helping bring in migrants arriving in small boats from France.

But the charity says it launched lifeboats 9,058 times in 2025 and only 1.2 per cent of these missions were to help those in distress in the English Channel.

Laura commented: “When there were protests in the past about migrants crossing the Channel the RNLI received an increase in donations.

"There will always be people who won’t donate as a result but the important fact we all know is that the crews don’t ask questions about a person’s background when they need to be saved from drowning.”

She was brought up in Scotland where her home town had an RNLI branch and her connection with the charity goes back to 1977, when she was a member of a Ladies Guild which fundraised in Lincolnshire.

Laura’s husband was a pilot in the RAF and often flew over the North Sea, where a few aircrew had been lost and where the RNLI would be the first to respond if there was a problem.

When they moved to Rutland in 1982, when he was stationed at RAF Cottesmore, she joined the local fundraising guild, which had been set up by the late Joyce Schofield in the 1960s because her husband had been rescued by the RNLI in the Second World War. The guild became a branch in 2000 when men joined the committee.

Laura added: “Some of the committee and supporters were from the Melton area so we became the Rutland and Melton Branch.

“Sadly, many of these people have died or been very ill over the last 10 to 12 years – so much so there’s only four of us who were committee members who still try to collect.

“Over the years I have met three families from Rutland who have been rescued by RNLI when they got into difficulties in the sea.

"One told me she would have lost both her daughters had they not been rescued.

“When we hold street or supermarket collections we always meet people who have used the RNLI or who have relatives who are volunteer crews.

"Many in this area go to Norfolk and have seen the Lifeboats in action.”

Go to www.rnli.org to find out more or to make a donation.