Stephen Wheatley, who lives in Crouch End, is a volunteer crew member for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which provides 24-hour rescue capabilities across the UK.
The 69-year-old grandfather-of-six wanted to celebrate the bicentenary and raise money and in July committed to run 100 two-mile runs by the end of 2024.
On December 28 he completed his 100th run from the inside of the Tower of London to the Tower Lifeboat station on the Embankment, where he has been stationed since 2005.
Since joining the crew, Stephen has done more than 450 12-hour shifts and taken part in more than 400 call-outs.
“Volunteering to help other people is incredibly rewarding, much more rewarding than you might imagine,” he said.
The RNLI was founded in 1824 when volunteers united to form a nationwide service to rescue seamen and passengers on stricken ships around the British coast
At that time they had only small wooden boats with oars and sails.
Stephen Wheatley has done 12 hour shifts for the Tower Lifeboat Station for 19 years saying volunteering to help other is ‘incredibly rewarding’ (Image: Stephen Wheatley)
For the past 19 years Stephen has supported the RNLI’s Tower Lifeboat Station, using the charity’s all-weather jet lifeboats, which have the latest technology and communications.
He said in 2024 his station responded to 750 ‘shouts’ or callouts.
“Ours is the busiest station in the network because it’s in the middle of a city with more than 10 million people,” he added.
“We have to be off the station rapidly because people are in a very fast-moving body of water.”
Stephen Wheatley with fellow RNLI volunteers at Tower Lifeboat Station where they were called out 750 times in 2024 (Image: Stephen Wheatley)
One of the most challenging situations Stephen dealt with this year was a woman who had fallen off a wall in front of the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames.
He said: “She fell onto the beach with an open fracture to her femur. She was on the sand howling in pain and the tide was coming in. We had 20 minutes to get her off the beach.”
A total of 21 emergency services officers, including London’s Air Ambulance, paramedics, police and fire crews were scrambled to the scene.
The Air Ambulance cannot attend rescues on the water without the RNLI being present – and the service almost always hands on those it has helped to another emergency service.
Stephen said: “Our job at the RNLI is to take them from a place of danger and put them in a place of safety,”
“It’s very serious, if we get an outcome wrong it’s a possible life lost.”
An entrepreneur, Stephen designs products to protect people’s hearing if using headphones and supplies kits to organisations including the BBC, NATO and the Canadian Parliament.
He has so far raised more than £7,000 for the RNLI.
RNLI volunteer Stephen, 69, ran 200 miles in two mile bursts to raise awareness and money for the charity’s life saving work (Image: Stephen Wheatley)
He said those wishing to donate could visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephen-wheatley-1721734766708
He said: “I ran mostly on Parkland Walk. Historically I’m a cyclist and on my 65th run I got an awkward back issue, my physio was screaming at me to stop.
“My last run was from Tower Bridge, where our station was originally based, and I got permission from the chief Yeoman. There was fantastic support.”
He outlined his reasons for first joining, saying: “I’ve always been a team player and when you stop playing rugby and football you miss working in a team.
“The teams we work with, they are three or four people at a time, with other big teams of paramedics, police and firefighters.
“It’s a great metaphor of life to spend time working with other people in teams to get the best possible outcome you can.
“Apart from my wife, kids and grandkids, it’s the best thing I’ve done.”