Sheerness RNLI crew welcome walking fundraiser to the Island

After three and a half years and a 9500 mile walk around the coast of Britain and Ireland the finishing line is just days away for Alex Ellis-Roswell from Margate.

After setting off from his home in Minnis Bay on 3rd August 2014, 21 year old Alex Ellis-Roswell has covered an amazing 9500miles walking around the coastlines of Great Britain and Ireland.

Along the way he has visited every RNLI lifeboat station in both countries, with the exception of the Scillies and Channel Islands, and whilst doing so has raised a phenomenal amount of money totalling at present nearly £70000 for the RNLI, the charity that saves lives at sea.

Setting off in a clockwise direction with the Margate RNLI station being his first port of call Alex walked along the coast right down to the tip of Cornwall and then headed north, doing a circuit of Southern and Northern Ireland along the way.

Back on the mainland, he headed up the west coast of England and into Scotland and on up to the Shetland Isles where he visited the country’s most northerly RNLI lifeboat station at Aith which is nearer to Norway than it is to London.

From the Shetlands he continued down the east coast and finally arrived at the Sheerness RNLI station at 4.30pm on Friday 3 November where he was met by the stations lifeboat operations manager Nigel Budden.

Nigel said: ‘it was great to meet Alex after having kept track of his epic journey since 2014 in which time he has visited 233 of the RNLI’s lifeboat stations. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Burgess and his staff at The Royal Hotel in Sheerness for providing Alex with food and accommodation for the duration of his time on the Island and also to the many RNLI supporters locally who made him so welcome.’

After two days well-earned rest, Alex re-visited the Sheerness boathouse where he was able to meet the crew and was given ‘run out’ on the Trent class all weather lifeboat ‘The George and Ivy Swanson’.

From the boathouse in the Sheerness Dockyard Alex set off on the final leg of his journey with a walk around the island and then on to the last lifeboat station on his list at Whitstable where he was hoping to arrive on Tuesday before finally returning to his starting point at Minnis Bay on Thursday 9 November.