Family and friends of the late Mark Stanley joined together to raise cash for RNLI Lifeboat volunteers as a fitting tribute to his memory.

Mr Stanley died aged 58 in July earlier this year, and had been the assistant bosun on board the Herald of Free Enterprise when it sank in 1987.

The disaster had weighed heavily on the father-of-two, who had been asleep in his quarters when the ship left Zeebrugge with its bow doors open.

While he was responsible for failing to close the doors, he had acted with great bravery and severely injured himself trying to rescue trapped passengers on the night.

Subsequent inquiries into the tragedy also blamed the ship’s captain, chief officer and the ferry company Townsend Thoresen, which was accused of a “disease of sloppiness”.

After his funeral last month his friends and family collected more than £800 which has now been donated to the RNLI Lifeboat station in Dungeness.

Mark’s mother Ruth attended alongside his brother Matt and sister Sarah to hand over the cheque and meet some of the volunteers.

The Stanley family are all keen supporters of the RNLI and there is a strong seafaring tradition in the family, with Mark’s father serving with the Merchant Navy as well as his brother David, and his sister Sarah serving in the Royal Navy.

They were given a guided tour of the Shannon class lifeboat called The Morrell, and chatted with the volunteers stationed at Dungeness, where Mark would often go to spend time in solitude.