Teignmouth Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) volunteer Anne Steele Arnett has raised over £2,000 for the lifesaving charity after running the London Marathon on Sunday April 21.

Anne, who has been volunteering for the RNLI for 22 years, started running last November after having a bone removed from her hand. She used running to combat the boredom of recovery and found she quickly fell in love with pounding the pavements.

After taking part in the Couch to 5k challenge, the volunteer lifeboat visits officer started following a marathon programme and on March 9 was invited to take part in the London Marathon with just six weeks to prepare. Anne described how she went into ‘shock for the first three days, and then got on with the job of both fundraising and training’.

Anne set up a JustGiving page on March 23 and quickly smashed her first target of £1,000. So she decided to aim for £1,824 to represent the date the RNLI was founded. After reaching this target, she decided to try and hit £2,024, to represent the bicentenary, which she has again exceeded. The total amount raised so far stands at £2,300.

After completing the London marathon Anne said she ‘loved it’ and is ‘incredibly thankful for the lovely messages and kind donations’. She has now put her name in the ballot for 2025 event and she also plans to run a mile every day in May for the RNLI May Day challenge.

‘We are incredibly thankful to Anne for running the London Marathon on behalf of Teignmouth RNLI, it’s a fantastic achievement and the donations raised will help us to continue to save lives at sea.’ said a spokesperson from Teignmouth RNLI. ‘Everyone at Teignmouth RNLI was proud to see Anne running on behalf of the station and we thank those who have supported her and donated to the cause.’

Anne is still accepting donations through her Just Giving page, which includes blog posts about her journey: https://www.justgiving.com/page/anne-steele-arnett-1711041692320