England rugby World Cup winner, Ben Cohen MBE, made a special port of call to visit the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat station at Wells on a recent family trip to the Norfolk coast.

Mr Cohen has been actively supporting the RNLI, the charity that saves lives at sea, over the past couple of years and took the opportunity to have a guided tour of the station's all-weather Mersey class lifeboat Doris M Mann of Ampthill and D class inshore lifeboat Jane Ann III.

The Sale Sharks player was impressed by the condition in which the crew maintain the boats and was surprised to learn that the all-weather lifeboat was first put on station in 1990.

Mr Cohen, who helped England to their 2003 World Cup victory, said: 'I have a real healthy respect for the volunteers that crew the lifeboats at Wells and at all the other RNLI lifeboat stations around the coast.

'Their dedication to answering the pager whenever it goes off, not knowing what type of emergency they may face, is incredible enough but they also keep their stations and boats in such an immaculate condition.

'It's hard to believe that the current lifeboat at Wells has been saving lives for the past 21 years.'

The RNLI has been operating a lifeboat in Wells since 1869 and in 2010 the station's lifeboats launched 31 times rescuing 33 people.