Appeal for volunteer coastguards

But if you're someone who's prepared to drop everything to help save a life then maybe it is for you.

The call might come in the middle of the night or half-way round the weekly shop at the supermarket - whatever your circumstances, you need to be ready to respond to emergencies including clifftop rescues, beached dolphins, unexploded bombs and capsized dinghies.

The work of the volunteer coastguard is to organise appropriate help and deal with whatever problems are presented - it's all about communication, observation and coordination.

"We are the eyes and ears for the Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) at Dover," said deputy station officer Gary Tidman.

"We have local knowledge - we understand the tides, and we know where problems can occur."

It's vital work but the team is depleted at the moment and looking for new people to train and commit their free time.

Gary Tidman himself has been a volunteer for four years. He said: "I think we all join for the same reason - the chance to give something back to society."

He stresses that this is not an opportunity for people to boost their income because though costs are covered the work is unpaid.

Coastguards carry pagers and whoever is on duty will respond to an alert from Dover operations room which receives emergency calls via 999 and take whatever action necessary, whether that is rushing immediately to the site of the problem, or requesting helicopter support or lifeboats from either Hastings or Eastbourne.

At present volunteers are on call for one day a week and during that time must be within half an hour away from wherever needed, which means staying within the boundaries of Bexhill or west side of St Leonards.

"The winter months are very quiet but the summer months get a bit more interesting," said Gary.

"We say it's 90 percent boredom and 10 percent pure excitement. For instance, we did a job with our colleagues from Hastings and Rye Bay at Fairlight where two lads and their father had decided to go fishing on the beach underneath the cliffs. The tide came in and they got trapped. The lifeboat couldn't get close enough to rescue them because there were too many rocks and the waves were too rough. The only way to rescue them was to go down the cliff and bring them up on ropes from below.

"It all starts with that pager - you'll get the call that three people are trapped and you might have been eating dinner or fixing your car, but you jump in the 4X4 Mobile Response Unit (MRU) and dash to help.

"For someone in civilian life, who is having a regular life, all of a sudden that 10 percent changes everything and you are going to save someone's life. It is a very exciting feeling...but you have to do the boring 90 percent to appreciate that 10."

Volunteers take turn to be on call for 24 hours at a time so it helps if they work for themselves or have understanding employers - station officer Dick Rowsell has been with the team since 1970, and fits around his job as a car mechanic, while other team members include a national accounts manager for a drinks company, a teaching assistant, and a heating engineer.

It's nothing if not varied - the coastguard might have to help recover a body at Beachy Head or someone fallen overboard, but also deal with munitions swept up onto the beach or measure a dead whale swept up on shore for the benefit of Natural History Museum records. Gary recently went on a patrol flight on Echo November, the fixed wing spotter plane, to Seaford and back to check on channel navigation violations.

Volunteers need to be aged between 18-55 preferably, and it helps to swim and be good with heights.

"You tend to attract by default a certain type of person," said Gary.

"Someone that is chasing the silver coin is never going to be interested. I think you need to be fairly giving, empathic, understanding, and caring, but at the same time you have to have a certain amount of hardness because you could be dealing with fatalities and serious injuries.

"If you don't think you can deal with that, you need to think long and hard about whether this is for you.

"We want to get some good people in that are going to be interested and dedicated. And it does have its rewards - that 10 percent where you actually do make a difference."

For more details email Gary at [email protected].