Palmer 'ands it over Easterners' dodgy geezer George Palmer (aka actor Paul Moriarty) presented a cheque to crew members of Brighton lifeboat in March. The presentation was held at the local pub, Spanish Lady, and was the result of a Race Night fundraiser which netted £500 for lifeboat coffers.

The presentation evening also raised a further £230 from raffles and donations from regulars of the pub. Unfortunately, Peggy was nowhere to be seen… Racing overseas British Forces based in Cyprus took part in the All Island Charity Raft Race at Dhekelia in June to raise money for the RNLI.

The event, which involved 34 raft entrants in varying categories racing around Dhekelia Bay, was completed by 62 Cyprus Support Squadron Royal Engineers who boosted lifeboat funds by £1,200.

Rude Bude! Fundraising is never a drag for Bude lifeboat crew. They recently raised over £4,000 by baring all in two Full Monty shows, along with a Grand Auction which enabled two of them to enter the RNLI Artie Cycle Challenge (see news pages for more details of the event).

Photographs from the popular 'Monty' shows were a bit steamy to print here but some of the lads (and a girl) took part in the show's drag performance and are shown just before taking the stage.

Rye remembered Popular Warwick folk band, Meet on the Ledge, have included a track on their new CD which tells the story of the 1928 Rye Harbour lifeboat tragedy.

The band have performed the song, Mary Stanford of Rye, at a number of venues including the Black Horse music festival near Hastings where they were featured on Meridian Television.

The band make collections wherever they play the song and have already raised £400 for the lifeboats.

Copies of the CD are available through Keith Harris on (01980) 611217 priced at £12. For every copy sold, £2 wilt be donated to Institution funds.

Tony's club talk .Intrepid yachtsman and survivor Tony Bullimore, travelled up the country on 14 April to talk to members of the Ribble Cruising Club at Lytham and donated all admission fees to Lytham lifeboat station.

The event, which was also attended by many Lytham lifeboat crew members, was a complete sell out and the club very sportingly made up the receipts to a round £600 which was given to the RNLI.

Tony, who hit the headlines in January 1997 when he was rescued by the Australian Navy after spending five days in the Southern Ocean in his overturned yacht, is pictured (right) with Coxswain Paul Heyes of Lytham lifeboat (centre) and Andrew Rosser, Commodore of Ribble Cruising Club.

Titanic rescues lifeboat Wells branch held a very successful fundraistng event in January which raised £1,400 for the lifeboats.

Showing the blockbuster film, Titanic, local cinema aficionado Derek Cooper, made his 115 seat theatre available to the branch and waived all claims to takings.

At £10 a seat, including a glass of wine and a buffet, the tickets were quickly snapped up, thanks to the hard work of the branch and the publicity generated by the local press. Demand for the tickets was so high that the branch reckon they could have sold the tickets 10 times over - one lady even rang up the branch treasurer to reserve 40 seats.

Making £1,050 from the sales, the branch also left collection boxes in the foyer which generated a further £350. If writer James Cameron ploughs his profits into making Titanic II. you can be sure that the Wells committee will be manning the lifeboats - only this time they will charging £100 per ticket! 'Gladi' made it! Stormy Stan always seems to be getting in on the action and hobnobbing with the stars these days - here he is seen with Rhino from television's Gladiators at Morecambe Carnival in June.

Stan and crew members look part in the carnival parade, with the station's Landrover and launch tractor, collecting cash whilst the local guild sold souvenirs from their stall.

Backing the volunteers Newent and district branch have enlisted the help of the Newent Platoon C Company of the Royal Glos and Wilts Regiment (ACF) to assist with fundraising activities over the last three years.

They annually help with house-to-house collections as well as getting involved with fetes and other events, including entering a successful team in the SW assault course challenge.

Eileen Sang, committee member pictured with Lt.

Shayle and his platoon, said that they had been a tremendous support to the RNLI, helping the branch to raise £17,800 since its formation in 1993.

Members of Birchington and district branch planned another 'seadog saunter' -a sponsored walk along Minnis Bay, Birchington on 3 May. Despite very unkind weather the intrepid walkers and their canine friends raised well over £300 for the RNLI.

When Edna Todd of Woodbridge sent out invitations for her 90th birthday she stated that all gifts should be in the form of a donation to the RNLI - nearly £70 was raised as a result.

The RAF museum at Hendon held an emergency services weekend in May in which RNLI Stanmore branch took part.

Stormy Stan was popular and much interest was shown the 1/3 scale lifeboat model which was loaned for the event. Sales of souvenirs realised £457 and there were donations on £57.

In July Greater London office received an anonymous donation of £1,000 in cash with a small note saying, 'From someone who has cause to be grateful'.

New record in the rain Having achieved an all-time branch record at its Flag Day last year, Tadley branch knew it had to do something a bit special for its 1998 Flag Day in June.

To depict the work of the RNLI, three models dressed in oilskins and swimming costume were set up with a D Class lifeboat as a mock rescue display.

Branch secretary Jack Shovel said, 'The weather was terrible, pouring with rain the whole day, but this was probably to our advantage by creating public sympathy!' A new record of £608 was achieved, which with the £607 raised the previous week in the house-to-house collection took the total for the two events to £1,215 - another branch record.

Grub's up Members of Workington ladies lifeboat guild recently served up hot dogs, tea and coffee to weary fisherman who had been trying their luck at the local fishing competition.

The competition, which ran from Sam to 4pm, proved to be very succesful and attracted fishermen from Scotland to Blackpool. The event, which the guild now hope to run annually, boosted lifeboat coffers by £400.

West Wight guild held an Autumn gift fair in 1997 which raised £471 together with £259 from souvenir sales. A Christmas fare also produced £421 in addition to £142 from souvenirs and Christmas card sales. To round up a highly successful year for the branch, the younger supporters organised a Tartan Ball which raised £1,500.

In February. Wood Green branch organised 'an evening of music for the Valentine season' featuring the Aylwin String Ensemble (members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra).

Around 100 people turned up to enjoy the music and light refreshments and a total of £426 was raised for the lifeboats.

Falmouth Watersports centre was filled to capacity in February when Falmouth guild held its third Quiz Night which raised £263 for the RNLI. Twenty-eight teams pitted their wits against each other answering questions set by Quizmaster Rod Allday. Competition was keen and the quiz was won by Flash Chambers with the Frogpudlians in second place.

Pupils from Sprowston High School in Norwich recently completed a sponsored swim raising £50 for the RNLI.

Corporate Relations No fee and 19.9% APR - The new Lifeboats MasterCard: The 1998 Southampton Boat Show was the venue for the relaunch of the lifeboats MasterCard.

During the past ten years, over 11,000 cardholders, have between them, helped raise an incredible £800.000 in donations from The Royal Bank of Scotland. However, both the RNLI and the Royal Bank were keen to update the credit card with some excellent new benefits for current cardholders and potential cardholders alike. Adrian Duffy, Card Programme Relationship Manager at the Royal Bank said the card has already proved itself to be a great success.

But we're never content to rest on our laurels, so the new benefits represent great benefits for card holders and a superb opportunity to help raise even more funds in support of the lifeboat crews.

As from October, the following benefits will now apply: • Now no fee at all, previously £10 per annum unless you spent more than £2,400.

• 19.9% APR on purchases down from 23.2% APR.

• Up to £100 cash back by transferring your balances from other credit cards (not including other Royal Bank cards).

• Raises money every time you spend.

Moreover, to celebrate the launch, the Royal bank will donate £10 instead of the usual £5 for the next 2000 cards issued, plus the current 25p on-going donation for every £100 you spend.

Much of the money raised will be used to help with crew training. The Royal Bank is planning to sponsor a crew training unit for three years to help ensure that crews around the UK and Republic of Ireland, are kept abreast of all the latest techniques and equipment.

To apply for a card please call (01202) 663213 today.

Kleenex tissue promotion: We have recently received a further £10,000 from the sales of the Kimberly-Clark/Lledo Tyne class die-cast lifeboat. You may recall that this model started life as an offer on Kleenex Tissues. This brings the total raised from this model to a splendid £100,000.

The Small Share Scheme: Help the RNLI by donating small shareholdings. Donations of smallholdings of shares continue to make this scheme a very useful method of fundraising for the RNLI, with over £13,000 raised so far this year. If you have any shares that are uneconomical to sell why not donate them to the RNLI. Please see the advertisement in the Small Ads for more details..