SARA is pleased to be supporting the RLSS’ Drowning Prevention Week again this year, which runs 12-19 June 2020.
Relevant information, guidance and tips will be shared on our Facebook page each day – see www.facebook.com/severnrescue
For more information about Drowning Prevention Week please visit www.rlss.org.uk/drowning-prevention-week

A small team took to the water at Symonds Yat early on Saturday morning 6 June, to practice swift water rescue (‘SRT’) techniques, in the first ‘live’ training which SARA has conducted since March. Practising operating effectively in faster running water, such as at Symonds Yat, is normally mandatory twice a year for our rescuers.
We arranged an early start and achieved a lot of useful training in a fairly short time whilst maintaining social distancing. The session also allowed us to practise using our coronavirus PPE at the appropriate points in a rescue, and to practice the procedures for correctly removing potentially contaminated PPE.
Across SARA we have been called out 20 times since the start of the lockdown, so it’s vital that we keep up our skills and liaised with all the emergency services and national organisations such as MREW to plan a return to limited face-face training.

We are absolutely delighted that the Council’s employees have voted SARA as their Charity of the Year and are so grateful for the support of SDC – especially at this…

BPC have generously donated £4,000 worth of vital equipment to keep SARA running and effective in our flood relief efforts. These types of donation are critical to ensure we maintain…

SARA has been asked to support GlosPol with their COVID-19 contingency plans for the community, and we have agreed to do this, in addition to maintaining our operational cover.

WCS Group is the leading national water treatment specialist and their staff have made SARA Sharpness their Charity of the Year. They have, so far, raised more than £1,500 towards our ongoing costs and have also donated a Ford Transit Custom van. This vehicle will allow us to respond more effectively to flood and swift water rescues; it will also help with our fundraising by allowing us to keep our primary response vehicle on-station, ready to deploy in an emergency.

We really are very lucky to have such great supporters!

At SARA we are monitoring the situation with Coronavirus very carefully. We have this week taken the decision to focus almost exclusively on maintaining our rescue capabilities over the next few months.
That means that we will only be conducting the most essential training, and you won’t see us out fundraising in public. We are also postponing visits to our rescue stations.
We love meeting our supporters and hosting visits, and we will get back to business-as-usual as quickly as we can!
We also have a number of sporting and other events to which we have committed to providing safety and first aid cover over the summer months. We will be working with all the event organisers individually, to agree what is appropriate.
Many thanks for your support.

On 1 March, Archie joined us on our SARA Lifeboat 1.

We have just taken delivery of another set of great stickers from our friends at Fastprint.co.uk. We look forward to giving them out to our team members and supporters next year! Fastprint can found at https://www.fastprint.co.uk/vehicle-stickers-graphics/