Monday, March 4 marked the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI and we went to the charity's Tynemouth station to meet the team and talk about their experiences.
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00:00 [HORN]
00:08 On Monday March 4th, boats across the UK came together to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI.
00:15 The seafaring charity has now been running for two centuries and we met up with the Timemouth team to have a look around.
00:22 I've been down at Timemouth for coming up to six years now. My full day job is I'm a student paramedic, student at Qualify.
00:30 I don't think I would have been a paramedic if it hadn't been for the RNLI. The RNLI pushed me into that emergency care role and I wanted to do that on a day to day basis.
00:41 The RNLI has their own in-house training and it's a very vast procedure. It's good training.
00:51 How long does that take?
00:53 We've actually just changed the training now. It's probably going to take about six months from coming to first down before you can get on the boat.
01:02 You've got to learn the basics before we can get you on the boat and then from there there's different levels of when you're going to be on the crew.
01:10 We did a job in 2022 I think it was. It was Boxing Day. Everyone was having a nice time up on the quayside having a couple of drinks.
01:21 Pages went off. It was two young female in their 20s who ends up in the water. She was stuck in between a fishing boat and the quayside itself.
01:31 We launched within 30 seconds we arrived on scene and managed to get the patient out of the water on the trawler that was there.
01:39 We then extricated the patient on the wall vessel and we went to near a landing site where we liaise with the paramedics and then treat the patient accordingly.
01:51 Most of the team are volunteers and work with the RNLI alongside their full time jobs.
01:56 Quite a lot of the training that we do within the RNLI is on an evening or on a weekend so that's outside of work hours.
02:03 Call outs etc though they happen at any time at any point 365 days a year 24/7.
02:10 So it could be that I'm in the middle of a work call a meeting with some work colleagues or with clients and the pager goes and I literally have to hand off my work and leave and go do whatever's required by the Coast Guard.
02:25 It's obviously very different when the pager goes your mindset ultimately changes really quickly.
02:31 So at the moment I could be doing some work doing some normal work at a desk or a computer doing all that kind of stuff.
02:42 And then when the pager goes your mindset just switches straight away into right actually I need to help and go out and support an entire stranger who I've never met before and possibly go and assist and help someone out.
02:56 So your training kicks in you very much kind of switch into it and yeah it's a bit different.
03:03 We'd obviously welcome anyone from any background.
03:05 We do have anyone like I said I work in IT I had no maritime background before I joined the RNLI.
03:11 Full training is provided you get handheld through anything and everything that you ever want to do in the RNLI.
03:17 And it is a really good place to be build up some really core skills that I never knew existed and I never had before.
03:24 We employ James who is one of the RNLI volunteers and he is often called out during the working day to help with the call outs for the RNLI.
03:33 And we support him by offering that kind of flexibility as an employer.
03:37 We have things like volunteering days and flexible working hours but ultimately with the RNLI things can be quite unexpected.
03:45 So we work quite closely with work consultancy business.
03:48 Our clients are quite aware of the work that James does as well.
03:52 And our biggest kind of flexibility is around allowing him that time to kind of drop everything, nip out of work and have to go and save some lives.
04:01 I think there's been a few meetings that he's had to leave in the middle of the day.
04:04 But you know the team are fully aware of the job that he has on the side and you know it might be a side job for him but it's extremely important and everyone is aware and knows to support James in what he needs to do.
04:16 And it isn't only crew members that are needed as part of the RNLI's team.
04:20 North Shields, born and bred and come from a seafaring family.
04:27 And my mum, she had fundraisers as well and she passed away last year and I thought it was a fitting tribute to carry on the family.
04:37 And also we really value the RNLI, particularly in this community too.
04:42 The fishing with the sea community in this area as I said it's really important and the community are so supportive.
04:52 Because everybody knows somebody who's been involved with the sea and they really value what the RNLI do.
05:00 I'm retired so you know the sky's the limit.
05:04 Go down to your local RNLI. If you're here in Tynemouth, North Shields area, definitely come down, come say hi.
05:11 We'll inform you of the process.
05:14 Definitely do it, it's one of the best things I ever did.
05:19 Massive opportunities and I love it.