VOLUNTEERS at a charity store have helped it become top of the shops!

Dunbar RNLI’s shop on the town’s High Street has been named the best performing RNLI shop in Scotland.

Opened on High Street in 2012, it sells a wide variety of goods, from homeware and toys to greeting cards and Galileo thermometers.

Money is then poured back into the life-saving charity.

Shop manager Ken Headley said: “We have been there before but this year we knew Portpatrick [RNLI shop] had a really good year.

“It is really good to know we are still at the top.

“We open almost every day of the year and basically we have got a good range of stock.

“We have got 24 really good volunteers so we are never stuck for getting it open.”

Mr Headley, who previously worked as a banker in London, initially became manager for what he thought would be “a short while”.

However, he remains at the helm alongside wife Marie.

Paying tribute to those who volunteer for the RNLI offshore, he said: “I have got great respect for the guys who actually go out in the boats.

“If they are prepared to go every day, I don’t see why we cannot be prepared to open the shop.”

Mark Lees, chairman of Dunbar Lifeboat Station, was “exceptionally proud” of what the shop volunteers had achieved in the past year.

He said: “To be the most successful lifeboat fundraising retail outlet in Scotland is a huge testament to all the hard work of the whole team, all of whom are volunteers and give up their time selflessly.

“Naturally, there is a huge partnership with the community in this success, because it is the support of the community that not only buys the great products we have but also, effectively, saves lives.

“I have a personal belief that the community are so supportive of ‘their’ lifeboat station because they not only see the lifesaving activities the crew and station participate in but also all the other community work the crew and station support in Dunbar and beyond.

“When we put that alongside the work our fantastic fundraising volunteers do, we understand just how fortunate we are to be supported by such an outstanding community. We can never be complacent, though, because despite having the most successful retail shop in Scotland, and a fundraising team the envy of every other lifeboat station in the country, we still rely on the support of the wider RNLI to make up the shortfall in funds to run our station.

“That’s why we are so grateful to the team and all of Dunbar for their unstinting support.”