A man who spent his working years saving lives is now using his artistic skills to help those in trouble at sea.

Trevor Loftus has painted a dramatic oil picture of the current Lytham St Annes lifeboat in action on a stormy night which is to be sold to boost the Shannon appeal which needs to raise £275,000.

He joined the Royal Air Force as a young man and spent most of his service career in the RAF Mountain Rescue Service whose task is to for search for and rescue aircrew, service personnel on mountain training and supporting civilian teams in rescuing walkers and climbers who became lost or had accidents on the mountains.

This work involved many hours flying with the distinctive yellow RAF search and rescue helicopters which are often used to fly team members to incidents and recover casualties, where weather permits.

Now assistant secretary of Lytham St Annes Art Society, Trevor decided to paint a dramatic picture which would be sold to help the RNLI Shannon appeal. ‘The picture shows the current lifeboat working with an RAF search and rescue Sea King helicopter from C Flight 22 Squadron at RAF Valley,’ said Trevor.

The painting - 30” x 20” on a stretched canvas - depicts a point where the lifeboat has co-ordinated with the RAF Sea King crew in order to carry out a detailed search. The sea is rough and both the lifeboat and helicopter use their searchlights in an attempt to locate a man lost verboard.

Trevor, who lives in the Fylde village of Elswick has been painting in oils and watercolour since the age of 10 and trained for two years at Oldham College of Art and Design. During his RAF career he continued to paint and has exhibited at the Mall Gallery, London with the Armed Forces Art Society.

The painting will be exhibited for sale at the Lytham St Annes Art Society Spring Exhibition in the Fylde gallery on the first floor of Booths supermarket in Haven Road, Lytham.

The free exhibition which showcases all the members’ artwork opens on Thursday, April 27 and runs daily from 10am-4pm until May 20 when it closes at 2pm. All of the profits from the sale of the painting will be donated by the artist to the new lifeboat which is currently under construction.