A retired operations manager from RNLI will officially open the B&M store in Whitfield on Saturday.

Roy Couzens, 68, spent 40 years with Dover’s RNLI and was nominated as a local hero to cut the store’s ribbon.

He will be at the Whitfield Retail Park at 8.45am and the store will be open to the public at 9am.

Mr Couzens said: “I didn’t know anything about it, I was very surprised and shocked.”

The anonymous nomination said that Mr Couzens was the definition of a true hero because of all the times he helped and rescued people.

Reflecting on his time, he said: “It has been an adventure, it goes from one extreme to the other.

“You see the good, and you see the very bad. It is something I wouldn’t think twice about doing again.”

His former RNLI crew dressed in their uniform will join him on the day.