A LONGSTANDING Newquay RNLI volunteer has reached a new milestone in his career.

Ian 'Pengers' Pengelly, who previously served as part of the crew for 24 years, has undertaken his first call in his new role as a launch authority for the station.

Newquay's RNLI lifeboat crew responded to their pagers in 'icy cold' conditions in support of the ambulance service at Towan Beach.

Ian, a former police officer, joined Newquay RNLI in 1994 and served until 2018 in a variety of positions, including inshore lifeboat crew, helm and shore crew. He rejoined last year to train as a launch authority, responsible for authorising the launch of the station's two inshore lifeboats 24 hours a day, whenever an emergency launch request is received from the Coastguard.

Ian said: “I'm pleased to be back involved with the crew at Newquay RNLI and it was good to record the first shout in my first duty week as a launch authority at the station.

“Even though I've got 24 years of experience on the lifeboat crew, this is a very different role to anything I was doing previously, so there's always something to reflect on and learn from.”