A NORTH Yorkshire lifeboat service have been “overwhelmed” by the generosity of a woman who left funding in her will - allowing them to buy a new boat.

The team that operate the Filey Lifeboat received funding from Marjorie Shepherd, from Stamford Bridge, when she passed away in 2012 - but have been waiting for the right time to purchase a new boat with the funding she left for them.

Marjorie and her husband owned a holiday home in Filey, which they spent a lot of time at looking out onto the sea. There are also two memorial benches in place where the couple used to sit.

A new boat costs around £280,000 - which Mrs Shepherd’s funding fully covered.

John Ward, lifeboat press officer, said: “The crew at Filey are overwhelmed by the generosity of Mrs Shepherd - helping them to buy the new boat. The team are now looking forward to training on the new vessel.”

The new boat, an Atlantic 85 named ‘Marjorie Shepherd after the donor, is a rapid response vessel which will allow the lifeboat team to get to situations very quickly.

The boat will travel up to around 35 knots - which is similar to around 40 miles per hour.

This will then allow the team to decide whether they will deal with the situation themselves or call in a bigger vessel from other nearby stations at Scarborough or Bridlington.

The new boat, which will replace the Mersey Class All Weather boat which the service has operated for around 30 years, arrived at the station in late July and will now be used to save lives around the North Yorkshire coast.

“We knew we were going to get a new boat with the money from Mrs Shepherd - we just didn’t know the date as we had to wait on RNLI approval”, Mr Ward added.

New lifeboats are often paid for by single donors or by local firms.