THREE members of the Beacon's raft race team accepted an invitation at the start of the month to join the Severn Area Rescue Association crew (SARA) at their Beachley station.

Station manager Mervyn Fleming met Buoyant Beaconettes Victoria Hallifax, Laura Watkins and Sarah Fraser to show the girls around the station and learn a little more about the team and their duties.

The girls learnt about the charity's constant need for funding. Despite a long waiting list of people hoping to join the 50-strong crew, the team are desperately seeking volunteers who have no interest on being on the boats, to donate their time to helping behind the scenes with fundraising.

As well as the charity's need for support, the crew explained how vital the service is to events in the county. Favourites such as Monmouthshire Show and Monmouth Raft Race would not be able to run without the help of these volunteers.

SARA house four lifeboats and three Land Rovers at their base on the Beachley peninsular, and provide an immediate volunteer rescue service for those in trouble in the rivers Severn or Wye. The team are also trained in mountain rescue, and will assist locating missing people across the county.

SARA volunteers also work alongside Defra to respond in times of inland flood rescue. Their range of kit includes SARA 5, a small, lightweight unsinkable boat able to work within towns and rocky areas.

The crew can be called away from Chepstow as far as Tewksbury and Devon to help in times of flooding, and can be gone for up to five days.

The team are unpaid local volunteers, who work in dangerous conditions amongst the highest fall of tide in the UK in the River Severn. The tide as it passes the slipway can be doing anything up to 9- 12mph.

Dedicated crew are contacted via pagers in an emergency, and aim to be in the boat and ready to go within ten minutes. Boats are all fitted with oxygen, defibrillators, trackers and radios that can keep them in touch with the other emergency services.

Running costs for the SARA station amount to around £25,000 per year at a minimum. This figure allows for no extra kit or work on the building.

"We don't have any vehicle to get that money back, it's all up to the generosity of the public," said Beachley training manager Mark Carwardine.

To support SARA, you can visit sara

-rescue.org.uk/

support-us or donate by texting "SARA73 £2" to 70070 to donate £2.

SARA is also up for a Lloyds Bank community grant. Vote for the team by texting VOTE KDRA to 61119.

Only one SMS vote per phone number. Texts will be charged at your mobile network provider's standard rate.