Lifeboats celebrate - Ordinary people acting heroically

IT might not be immediately obvious that there are heroes all around us but in coastal towns and villages all across these islands that is often – and reassuringly – the case.

It may be the man who services your car or the person who runs the struggling family hotel at the end of the village. It may be the woman who teaches in the community school or the lady who runs the pharmacy. It may even be the lads from the messers’ football team who never give much of an impression that they realise that there is anything worthwhile in life that does not involve kicking a ball.

Yet anyone who has had need of the services of a Royal National Lifeboat will testify that truly heroic people can lead mundane, ordinary lives well beyond the limelight.