A weekly newspaper’s campaign to fund a new lifeboat has been a success after reaching its £25,000 target in just six months.

The Free Press, based in Monmouthshire, launched the appeal to raise the funds so the Severn Area Rescue Association could buy a much-needed replacement lifeboat.

It set an initial target of a year to raise £25,000 but the campaign took off among readers and after only six months, the money had been collected.

Now the new lifeboat, pictured above, has been made to the specifications set out by SARA and was launched on the River Severn.

Free Press managing editor Nicole Garnon said: “When we launched the appeal, we gave ourselves a year to reach the target but it just seemed to take off from the word go.

“The volunteers who provide this rescue service were already doing fund raising themselves. Our aim was to help them out by raising awareness among the wider community.

“We wrote to all local schools inviting them to get involved, which many of them did. We appealed to town councillors, local rotary organisations and of course our readers.

“Free Press staff took part in some of the fundraising events themselves and we donated money from a monthly advertising feature about the appeal.

“It was great to see our paper at the heart of the event to launch the new SARA 3 lifeboat which is based in our patch and which will be used in search and rescue operations.”

The new boat was launched at a ceremony attended by local dignitaries, supporters of SARA and members of the 1st Battalion The Rifles who are based nearby, whose motto “Swift and Bold” was adopted as the name of the new vessel.