A GENEROUS donation of more than 20 stamp albums from an anonymous supporter to the Hartlepool RNLI lifeboat station raised £1,000 for the charity at a specialised stamp auction that was held at Newcastle recently.

The albums, which contained a huge variety of stamps from all over the world, were auctioned by North East stamp dealers Corbitts at the Britannia Hotel, Newcastle Airport.

Around 200 ‘philatelists’ attended the event with the bidding for the RNLI lot quickly reaching the final sum of £1,000.

Hartlepool RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Chris Hornsey said: "This extremely generous donation from the RNLI supporter will certainly help provide our volunteer lifeboat crews with the ‘first class’ kit to go to sea with and help maintain our two lifeboats here at the Ferry Road lifeboat station."

Anyone wanting further information about the activities of the RNLI can visit www.rnli.org