<p>The Rotary Club of Thorpe Bay is holding the annual Foulness Bike Ride&nbsp;to support the Royal National Lifeboat Institution&nbsp; (RNLI).&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Southend on Sea&nbsp;has&nbsp;one of the busiest lifeboat stations in the country, with 127 callouts last year.&nbsp;&nbsp; It houses two lifeboats at the Pierhead boathouse at the end of the Pier and one Hovercraft on the seawall.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The advantage of the Hovercraft at the seawall is its ability to rapidly search large areas of mud, sand and shallow waters.&nbsp; This is a major problem in Southend where people are often cut off by the tide, or have accidents.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Look at the Southend RNLI website for further information and stories of rescue and history.</p> <p>All donations to Justgiving&nbsp; will be for the benefit of the&nbsp; housing&nbsp;for the Hovercraft &nbsp;which needs to be replaced.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The RNLI is a registered charity which exists to save lives at sea.&nbsp; It provides, on call, the 24-hour service necessary to cover search and rescue requirements to 50 miles out from the coast of England and Ireland.&nbsp;&nbsp; There are 233 lifeboat stations around the country.&nbsp; All of the crew are volunteers who live and work close to the Lifeboat Station.</p> <p>Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.</p> <p>Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving &ndash; they&rsquo;ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they&rsquo;ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it&rsquo;s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</p> <p>So please dig deep and donate now.</p></p>Thanks to Summercare for their sponsorship of this event..</p>