A PORTLAND family raised over a thousand pounds in just four hours for a life-saving marine charity.

Alex Boatswain and her partner Dr Peter Hill made £1025 for the National Coastwatch Institution at Portland Bill at a garden party held in their Southwell home.

As previously reported in the ‘Echo’ an intruder broke into the Coastwatch Institution in May this year, destroying the collection boxes and causing £1,500 worth of damage.

Station manager Geoff Peters said: "Since the break-in we have incurred a great deal of expense by adding to the existing security systems.

"As watchers we spend a lot of time collecting money at supermarkets and coffee mornings, that sort of thing, but those events usually only raise £200 to £300, so this has been an outstanding success.”

"We don't receive any funding from the government or local councils, so the lookout is run entirely on public donations. It costs £8,000 just to keep the doors open throughout the year."

The afternoon was a fully-fledged family affair including children's games, home made cakes and a crab and lobster sea food buffet caught by a family fisherman just off Portland.

Geoff, who has been the station manager since 2004, added: "I was both shocked and stunned at the result. I would like to say to Alex & Peter and all those family members and neighbours a massive 'thank you' from the Coastwatch team."

Coastwatch is a highly respected Dorset institution which has over 70 highly trained volunteers giving a total of 9,417 man hours to the community each year, excluding time spent on call and in training.

In 2012 the organisation was presented with The Queens Award for Voluntary Service, the highest recognition possible for volunteers and equivalent to an MBE.

Alex, who runs a beauty salon on the island, said: "I never expected to make that much. We decided to host the party because we heard about the break-in and wanted to do something to help the situation.

"We are a local family and have done some fundraising for them in the past, we had a lot of support from friends and family.

"Afterwards, Coastwatch invited us out to Portland Bill for the day to see exactly what they do which was really interesting, they work incredibly hard and save hundred of lives."

The money raised will go towards installing new cameras and upgrading the fence and lighting equipment to ensure Coastwatch are not caught out in the future.