A volunteer for the Port St Mary RNLI crew has successfully gone a year with zero beer.

Danny Grace, who joined the charity that saves lives at sea as a volunteer crew member in April 2020, began his challenge in March last year.

He celebrated making it to the end of his challenge with a Guinness at the Albert.

Mr Grace said: ‘It’s great to have raised almost £2,000 and I’m so appreciative of the people who donated.’

Asked if he ever found it to be particularly challenging, Mr Grace said: ‘There were a few times when stressful situations, which would normally have driven me to drink, made abstaining difficult but on the whole it wasn’t too bad.

‘I’ve actually enjoyed some really good nights out where I was designated driver and woke up hangover-free.’

Mr Grace has raised almost £2,000 for his cause, which is enough to train one volunteer lifeboat crew member.

He had hoped to raise £4,461, which is enough to train a volunteer and buy a full kit for them.

His motivation for doing the challenge was to help raise funds in order to keep the vital service running, but also to raise awareness of the RNLI and what it does, with the hope of inspiring the next generation of RNLI volunteers.

Since signing up as crew, he has been equipped by the charity with the necessary kit to volunteer on both Port St Mary’s all-weather Trent class lifeboat Gough Ritchie II, as well as the inshore D-Class lifeboat Spirit of Leicester.

Mr Grace has attended weekly training exercises at Port St Mary lifeboat station both at sea and ashore, learning essential skills such as radio communication, navigation, boat handling, and search and rescue.

Working as part of a team, the volunteers practise a wide range of rescue scenarios in order to prepare for any type of call out. It is all of this which has given him the idea of this challenge.

In the short time that Danny has been a volunteer crew member of Port St Mary RNLI, he has already been on numerous call outs.

His most memorable call-out took place last November when three yachtsmen were saved after their 40-foot yacht became fouled in Bay Ny Carrickey.

There is still time to donate to Danny’s cause.

Find his JustGiving page under Port St Mary RNLI and ‘Danny’s One Year on Zero Beer Challenge’ or on the Port St Mary RNLI and Port St Mary Yacht Club Facebook pages.

There are also collection boxes at the Port St Mary Post Office and in the Isle of Man Yacht Club in Port St Mary.