Lifeboat tribute to Kidderminster rescue colleague set to launch
Volunteers with the Severn Area Rescue Association, based at Kidderminster, are preparing to launch a new inshore lifeboat which will be dedicated to a colleague who tragically died after a road accident last year.
The official launch of the lifeboat will take place at Stourport Boat Club on January 21.
It will carry the name of Stuart Frost, whose call sign was W26. Stuart, aged 42, was an operational crew member with the rescue association.
He was a nurse working with the home treatment team from Kidderminster Hospital and had also been a former member of the Royal Air Force and Military Police.
Before returning to Kidderminster, he had been an operational member of the RNLI at Weston-super-Mare.
The tragic accident happened on the A450 at Shenstone near Kidderminster on March 21 last year.
A woman motorist was jailed for two years and nine months after appearing at Hereford Crown Court in connection with the incident.
"We wanted to pay tribute to Stuart by naming the boat after him."
The words of a former colleague of Severn Area Rescue Association crew member Stuart Frost, who is to have a new lifeboat named after him.
Mr Frost died aged 42 after a crash on the A450 in Kidderminster last March.
Nick Harvey, former chairman of the Wyre Forest branch of the Severn Area Rescue Association, said: "We gained a grant of £13,404 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after the organisation was part of a national response to flooding across the UK.
"We can be called to help with national emergencies, and we were delighted to be successful in gaining a grant.
Supported
"Stuart was an operational crew member and we wanted to pay tribute to him by naming the boat after him."
The lifeboat will be one of four rescue boats used by the Wyre Forest branch of the search and rescue association which also has three four-wheel drive vehicles and one incident support unit. These are manned by 20 operational crew members supported by 30 non-operational crew.
The organisation is currently based at Kidderminster Fire Station and can be called out by police, fire or ambulance services for emergencies . All members are unpaid professionals.
Local member Andrew Hipkiss, of Walton & Hipkiss estate agents, has created the www.sara-wyreforest.org.uk support website for the Wyre Forest branch where people can find out more information.
