A LIFEBOAT volunteer has hung up his helmet after leaving his role after 15 years of service.

Martin Croad, known locally as Myrtle, has left the Lyme Regis RNLI crew. He enjoyed five years at the helm of the crew as part of his service for the life-saving charity.

Mr Croad, 37, his wife Kerry and children Bradley, 3, and Pheobe, 7, have moved to live in Seaton - meaning Mr Croad had to give up his role.

Mr Croad paid tribute to the work ethic of his former fellow volunteers and thinks it will be “very strange” not to be on call.

He said: “I leave with mixed feelings.

“They are a great bunch at the lifeboat station, a terrific team who all pull together when it really matters.

“No two shouts are ever exactly the same, and it’s going to feel very strange not putting my pager on my belt in the morning and keeping it close by all through the night.

“My family have been fantastic. I have left food on the table when my pager sounded the alarm, and I even left clothes at the launderette on one occasion.”

Mr Croad joined the crew after going through a traumatic experience.

He was aboard a fishing boat whose crew found a body at sea. Afterwards he found difficulty in going back to sea.

After receiving encouragement from friends at the lifeboat station, he applied to join the RNLI crew.

In 2007 he broke his wrist rescuing a man from the sea. The RNLI wrote a letter of thanks to Mr Croad, thanking him for ‘answering an emergency well above the call of duty.’ After giving up smoking and losing four stone in weight, Mr Croad took on the 2014 London Marathon - completing the race in four hours, 22 minutes and 56 seconds.

Mr Croad was also a member of the Lyme Regis RNLI flood rescue team.

He was known as Myrtle following a radio feature about a local woman.

He said: “There was a local radio station that featured an old lady called Myrtle Haybaler.

“Members of the crew heard her. I had a farming background and somehow the name of Myrtle just stuck.

“If anyone calls me Martin I know I am in trouble.”