Rallying round Neil Parullo and Nairn Brown entered a 72-hour classic car rally from Land's End to John O'Groats and raised a total of £5,100 for Strathmore branch - making them the clear winners of the shield awarded to the car raising the largest amount of money for a charity of their choice.

Seventy-two hours of continuous driving, with only one stop of 12 hours in Edinburgh, tested the two men's endurance to the limit. There were many occasions when they could have given up, but knowing the amount of money at stake they forced themselves on to the finish.

Neil and Nairn are pictured outside the John O' Groats hotel with their travelstained Austin-Healey. Photo Mary Harvey Forward Birmingham goes forward Birmingham is renewing its strong connections with the lifeboat service this year with its support for the Forward Birmingham Lifeboat Campaign - which aims to raise Elm for a new Trent class for Exmouth.

The campaign was launched at the National Boat, Caravan and Leisure Show at the NEC in February and well over Keith Graham, coxswain of Exmouth lifeboat, Sue Pollard and Vic Cocker, chief executive of Severn Trent Water and chairman of the Forward Birmingham campaign, at its launch at the NEC.

£600,000 will have been raised by the end of June. The campaign co-ordinator, Judith Feeney, has great hopes of achieving the £lm target by the end of the campaign in March next year, helped by the new Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor David Roy, naming the campaign as one of his mayoral charities for the year.

The campaign was fortunate to have enlisted early on the help of Severn Trent Water and, in particular, its chief executive Vic Cocker who heads the campaign's steering group. Free office space for the campaign headquarters and the funding of two very successful events have been provided by the company.

The charity quiz night held on 11 April at Edgbaston cricket ground raised £6,800, with teams from many businesses and organisations in Birmingham taking part.

The Printer's Devils from the Birmingham Post and Mail took the first prize followed by the Dribblers from Severn Trent. The campaign's team, Grace's Darlings, took a creditable seventh.

The Sea Prom, featuring the English Symphony Orchestra, Ben Luxon, Rod Argent and Gordon Giltrap was due to be held on 7 June, with support from RNLI branch and guilds all over the Midlands In Brief THE Dursley branch recently arranged a concert combining the Polperro Fisherman's Choir and the Dursley Male Voice Choir. An audience of over 400 enjoyed a wonderful evening of music and £1,700 was raised for lifeboat funds.

A BRIDGE drive, which included a light lunch and afternoon tea, a raffle, wine bar and souvenir stall resulted in a profit of £628 for Henley-on-Thames branch.

A RACE night was organised by the Mayfield and Five Ashes branch in the village hall. Some 120 people attended and enjoyed an exciting evening's race, together with a very enjoyable buffet supper.

The excitement of the punters was equalled to that of the branch treasurer as the money flowed in - by the end of the evening some £1,227 had been raised.

DUNBAR'S lifeboat has benefitted from a donation with a difference. Local community policeman David Munro and his wife Margaret were married last November and asked their wedding guests and friends to make donations to the Dunbar branch rather than buy them wedding presents.

One Saturday in April crew members gathered at the lifeboathouse to watch Mr Munro present a cheque for £600 to Stan Shaw, treasurer of the branch. Mr Shaw commented that in his 17 years as treasurer many donations had been received but this was the first time he could recall a donation in lieu of wedding presents.

A PRIZE bingo night held by Newburghon- Ythan convenership was held in March.

The event was primarily organised by the Forbes family and raised a net sum of £1,277 - an excellent result for a small village.

A WHIST weekend in Yorkshire realised over £100 for Tamworth ladies' guild. Ms Chris Muspratt, who organised the event, also raises money from her monthly whist drives held locally and the guild is hoping to inspire other whist fanatics throughout the country to raise money for the RNLI.

and also from further afield.

The private phase of the campaign has been very successful so far. In addition to a gift from the City Council generous sums have been received from Severn Trent Water, IMI, British Gas Transco, Rover Cars, National Westminster Bank and Birmingham Post and Mail.

Coxswain Keith Graham of Exmouth lifeboat is thrilled with the response of the people of Birmingham to the campaign.

'It's just fantastic. Birmingham bought us the old City of Birmingham in 1970 and now 25 years later they are going to give us a new boat. It's difficult to say just a simple thank you but we can promise a 'good job, well done'.Chips off the old block THE To celebrate 35 years in the fish and chip business, proprietors of the Round 'O' Fish Bar in Arbroath, Tony and Elaine Atkinson, offered customers a half price meal for a day and donated the takings of £850 to the Arbroath ladies' guild. A further £31 was donated in the shop collecting box and on top of this, fish merchant Eric Scott donated £10 per stone of fish used and potato merchant Angus McPherson donated £2 per bag of potatoes used - adding a further £149 to the total.

Tony and Elaine, together with shop staff Tracey Todd and Leanne Webster handed over a cheque for £1033.18 to members of the ladies' guild, watched by Mr McPherson and Mrs Sandra Scott of the fish merchants. Photo Photolab, Forfar The hole story The seventh annual golf tournament organised by Newbiggin ladies' guild took place on a sunny day in May. Around 168 golfers from local Northumberland clubs and also from clubs in Carlisle, Durham and Ripon took part in the competition.

With many generously donated prizes and a raffle, the resulting £1,000 was donated to the Newbiggin-by-the-Sea lifeboat station.

In Brief A RAFFLE at the Chew Valley Restaurant in Keynsham resulted in more than £900 for the RNLI, bringing the total amount raised during the last four years by Barbara Hatherell, her husband John and their staff to £11,500.

A MASSIVE pillar of pennies built for lifeboat funds realised £120 for Islay ladies' guild.

A COFFEE morning held at Maple Court in February proved very successful for Hitchin and District branch, raising £200.

A CAPACITY audience enjoyed an Old Time Music Hall and music from the Twenties and Thirties by The Confections at St Mary's Catholic Hall, East Finchley. During an extended interval members of the Finchley and Friern Barnet branch served a buffet supper to the audience and entertainers, after which a raffle of donated prizes was drawn. The branch was delighted with the resultant £549 for its funds.

A SALE by auction of miscellaneous and collectors' items was organised by Coventry ladies' guild at the car showrooms of Quicks Parkside, and raised £810 in two hours. The auctioneer in charge of proceedings was Mr Harvey Williams who very kindly donated his services free of charge.

To MARK the diamond jubilee of the National Federation of Music Societies, which represents, serves and trains amateur musicians nationwide, Market Harborough ladies' guild joined the Leicestershire County Symphony Orchestra at a concert dedicated to the sea. More than 200 music lovers attended the event at the church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Bowden, and the proceeds of approximately £740 were donated to the RNLI.

Central Fundraising Campaigns The RNLI is keen to extend the benefits offered to members, which at the moment are largely limited to the insurance and membership schemes currently on offer by the RAC - which are coming along strongly. However, we are also trialling a new travel club with Teacher's Assurance. The trial has gone out to 50,000 members but if you did not receive the insert the scheme is, quite simply, that discounts of up to 10% are available from the travel club on any holiday you wish to go on by ringing (0800) 626928. Make sure you refer to the RNLI in each case since we also get a booking fee of £5 for every holiday booked through the club, which is ABTA bonded.

Further benefits we are working on include hospital and health care, buildings, contents and marine insurance.

Also new is a joint sponsorship programme with Teacher's Whisky which is organising the Round Britain Race in August, see the advertisement on the back cover. This offers us the opportunity of fundraising in each of the stop-off points at Southend, Penarth, Largs and Hartlepool.

Moreover, residents of Hull will have seen our first fund-bus in the Lord Mayor's Parade, in RNLI colours, advertising various local companies. The organiser, Douglas Mills, hopes to have two more buses on the road shortly - in Scunthorpe and Barnsley.

It has also been a busy time for existing promotions. The Volvo lifeboat naming competition was held, producing over 2,000 entries, and the Royal Bank of Scotland introduced its new photocard option which has been very well received. E.P.

Barrus, importers of the Mariner outboard engines used on many inshore lifeboats, ran their D-BAT heavy duty all-terrain vehicle from John O'Groats to Land's End, at times towing the D class they will be donating to the RNLI. Unisys, the computer company, have appeared at the Networks Exhibition at the NEC, using the theme of Rescue, with material from the Institution.

CPC Foods in the Republic of Ireland had an excellent TV commercial and Seven Seas will be launching its national programme with us in over 6,000 chemists in August - so keep taking the pills! At the same time our other joint programmes more than held their own, including Kimberley Clark models which produced a special edition for the AGM at which we had a corporate stand, International Paint and Cetrek in the marine world, Guernsey Colour Labs and Lifeboat Tea.

Finally, the My Garden national quiz has been delayed for a number of reasons, but had over 5,000 entrants at last count, while still looking for more, and the Safeway and B&Q collections are proceeding apace.Beauty and the beast! Stratford on Avon branch, together with Justina's of Stratford, organised a highly successful fashion show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Shakespeare Centre in March. The evening was a sell-out and resulted in over £1,200 for the branch.

The Mayoress of Stratford, Chris Turner, was in attendance and drew the raffle prizes. The star prize was a splendid patchwork quilt, kindly donated by the ladies of Tredington and Blackwell villages and which had taken them a year to make.

Pictured in full crew kit is area organiserBill Leech, with one of the lady models, Beverley Clarke.

(Our apologies to the good-humoured Bill Leech for the headline! - Ed) Photo Richard Suthons Playing their part Bridlington ladies' guild received a wonderful fundraising boost thanks to the activities of the Remould Theatre Company.

From 28 March to 8 April Bridlington's Leisure World was the venue for the play 'Come Hell or High Water', set around the Great Gale of 1871 when over 30 ships were wrecked in Bridlington bay with the loss of 70 lives - including six lifeboatmen. The town's two lifeboats, the Harbingerr (a private lifeboat) and the Robert Whitworth were launched countless times, with crews replaced as men became exhausted rowing in seas said to be the most destructive in living memory.

These events and their effect on the whole community were portrayed in the play and more than 100 townsfolk took part, including Fred Walkington, present day coxswain of Bridlington lifeboat and Tony Ellis, Humber Coastguard station officer, who played the parts of coxswain and coastguard in the Great Gale - a unique experience for both men as they made their acting debut.

The play attracted large audiences and after each performance members of Bridlington ladies' guild took their collecting boxes into the foyer and thanks to the generosity of the audiences collected a grand total of £576.77.

In Brief THE LADIES of Arbroath guild were delighted to receive the support of young Paul Russell who raffled a signed football he had won.

Paul put the sum of £24 he raised into the RNLI collecting box in Whittakers the Optometrists in Arbroath.

A TALENT-studded night of entertainment organised by the Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton ladies' guild filled the Pavilion and raised over £700.

THE Cleethorpes branch celebrated its 25th anniversary with a dinner at the Cliff Lodge Hotel. Over the last 25 years the branch has raised £173,000 for the lifeboat service.

THE BALTIC Exchange St George's Day Society this year donated £1,500 to Salcombe lifeboat. Over 120 guests attended the annual dinner where they enjoyed a very interesting talk by Frank Smith, coxswain of Salcombe lifeboat.

IN ORDER to raise funds for the Humber appeal, the recently elected committee of Horsforth branch arranged a barn dance.

Unfortunately, because of horrendous wintry conditions on the appointed day, no one was able to get through the snow and ice to the venue. Undaunted, the committee rearranged another date and the dance was eventually held, raising £400.

Holiday money Over the last three years Mullion, one of Weststar's three holiday parks, has been the centre of an active RNLI fundraising programme, with more than £8,900 collected on Wednesday evenings during the holiday season. Some £30,000 has been raised in the ten years since collections began .Concerted fundraising A concert in aid of the RNLI and a local charity was arranged and hosted by the Cromer Smugglers at the local parish hall. Led by Paul Wegg, who is the mechanic of Cromer lifeboat, all the acts were locally based and in the past year had appeared with Michael Barrymore.

The show was compered by Keith Skipper, of BBC Radio Norfolk fame. Between the acts he entertained the audience with his Norfolk 'mardles' and some suspect poetry allegedly written by the woman who lives next door! A young man from Kings Lynn, Jamie Thurston, opened the show with two numbers from Les Miserables and he was followed by a dancing act which caused quite a stir among the male members of the audience with their performance of the cancan.

Further acts followed and after the interval the hosts of the show took to the stage for the final half.

The group was formed in 1993 by Paul Wegg and has appeared all over Norfolk, Suffolk and the Midlands raising money for the RNLI. To date this year the group has raised around £3,500 and the latest event has added another £400 to that total.

Keeping in trim Albert Sutherland, coxswain of Fraserburgh lifeboat, gets a new hairstyle from Banff and Buchan college students (from left) Deborah Strachan, Maria Mutch and Marion Johnston. They donated the £1,041.16 they had raised in a hair and fashion show to lifeboat funds.

Photo Aberdeen & Press JournalThat sinking feeling When the Church of England's Diocese of Newcastle held a gathering of clergy and laity at Swanwick conference centre at the end of 1992, people were asked if they could entertain others with a glimpse of their own particular interests and hobbies.

One vicar, Mike Pennington, an exnaval officer, gave an illustrated talk entitled'Bang, gurgle, gurgle -orhowships sink'. There were those who thought he was going to speak about the current state of the C of E and stayed away. But it wasn't like that at all. It really was about shipping disasters. So popular was his talk that there was standing room only and a demand for a repeat performance the next day.

Since then he has travelled all over Northumberland and Tyneside, proclaiming the gospel of the RNLI and raising money for the Institution (he sent in £250 this year) and for local churches.

If you live in the Tyneside, Northumberland or County Durham areas and would like to organise an evening he would be happy to hear from you. Ring him on (01670) 813526 or write to Cambois Church House, 7 Wansbeck Mews, Ashington, Northumberland NE63 8QH Not such a catastrophe! A black-tipped British shorthaired kitten named 'Oakley' shows great interest in the contents of the collecting box his owner Mike Evans, honorary secretary of Loughton and District branch, uses for the proceeds of the sale of plants outside his house.

Having had a collecting box stolen, Mike now uses a sturdy handmade box which can be chained and padlocked to the table where the plants are sold. At the end of the day Oakley waits for the box to be emptied and counted - trying to undo four screws 'helped' by a fairly large paw is not easy! During the last financial year the branch raised some £12,000.

The oldest collector? Mr Frank Gay, aged 102, is a keen supporter of the RNLI and has been collecting at his block of flats in Liss, Hampshire for the past 12 years. A master baker, he was still baking and icing cakes for friends and organisations until a year ago.

Frank could well be the RNLI's oldest collector. If you know different then send a photo to the Editor! The last waltz After 14 years organising the annual Combined Watersports Clubs of the River Exe annual lifeboat ball Gordon Mortimer has decided to call it a day. The event was born on the day of the Penlee disaster and over the past 14 years the event has raised over £50,000 for the Exmouth lifeboat station and the RNLI.

This year's ball was listed as 'Gordon's Farewell Lifeboat Ball' and guests included Mike Atkinson, second coxswain of Penlee lifeboat, Andrew Young, south west regional manager, Keith Graham, coxswain of Exmouth lifeboat and Craig Rich of Westcountry TV. The evening went with a swing and resulted in a further £2,800 for Exmouth lifeboat.

Another gentleman from Exmouth, Brian Cole, who has raised thousands of pounds for the lifeboat service has been named as Exmouth Rotary Club's citizen of the year. Each year the club presents an award to a local citizen who has carried out voluntary service to the community which might otherwise have gone unrecognised.

After being rescued by Brixham lifeboat over 30 years ago, following a serious cliff fall, Brian spends much of his spare time fundraising for the RNLI as an 'expression of gratitude'. His cheery face has become a familiar sight to many from his charity stall, his lectures and guided visits to the RNLI display centre.

In Brief MEMBERS of Pinner branch were delighted to report that they have raised a total of £100,000 for the RNLI.

As IF the setting of Rothesay Winter Garden was not in itself spectacular enough for the annual dinner dance of the Isle of Bute branch, the powerful and striking stage backdrop added the final touch. This was a painting by the Winter Garden's artistic bar manager, Danny Kay, based on an RNLI Christmas card showing a venerable model maker working on a lifeboat, watched by a young boy. Once again lifeboat funds were swollen by a well supported raffle, while proceeds of the dance were greatly enhanced by the donation of £1,000 from a retired London stockbroker who had happy memories of the island.

MANAGERS of a Bournemouth pub, The Moon in the Square, recently presented a cheque for £1,200 to the Institution. Alan and Christine Harbour handed the cheque to Ian Ventham, head of fundraising and marketing.

The money had been raised from entry fees to Christmas and New Year celebrations at the pub and was donated in memory of Christine's father, Clive George, who was a long serving member of Fishguard lifeboat crew before his death last year.

A BRIDGE drive held by Hitchin and District branch proved a great success. There were 20 tables participating and the branch made £305.64 from the venture. At another friendly ceremony in March The Windmill at Charlton presented the branch with £500 to provide Aldeburgh lifeboat with three new-design lifejackets.

THE HUMBER Appeal recently received a cheque for £1,000 from Boots Charitable Trust. The cheque was presented to Bevan Bear and Christine Goodall, north east regional manager by Catherine Ty ndall, store manager of Boots in Nottingham.

AN AREA social evening held by the Ton Class Association in Hove raised £160 for the lifeboat service. Sixty members, wives and guests attended and the cheque was presented to Charlie Sharrod, coxswain of Hastings lifeboat, who is also a member of the association which was formed by and is for ex RN, RNR officers and ratings who served on Ton class minesweepers and hunters, the last wooden warships commissioned in the Royal Navy.

The Autumn issue of The Lifeboat appears in October 1995 and copy for the Fundraisers section should be submitted as soon after the event as possible, and no later than Friday 18 August.