Daniel Craig takes time out to campaign for new lifeboat station

London, Oct 21 : English actor Daniel Craig has taken time out from promoting his new James Bond movie 'Quantum of Solace', to back a two-million-pound campaign to fund a new lifeboat station.

Craig, 40, joined a lifeboat crew to pay tribute to the real-life heroes who save lives at sea, and to publicise the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's appeal for a new station in Hoylake, Merseyside, where he grew up.

The actor, in a foreword to the appeal brochure, shared fond memories of the original station, which was founded in 1803 and is one of the oldest in the UK.

"I was sad to see the old Hoylake lifeboat station go. It was a rallying point when we were kids. Somewhere to meet, a place to climb and fall off, and usually to be chased away by an annoyed lifeboat man after you had asked him for the thirteenth time to be taken out in a lifeboat," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"The building that replaces it, however, is long overdue. When you consider the Hoylake lifeboat's 200-year history, the lives it has saved and therefore the families it has kept together, its importance needs no embellishment, but its continued success needs our support," he added. The campaign has been running for a year and has so far raised 900,000 pounds, with the second phase aimed at trying to raise fund for a new lifeboat and equipment.

"Raising two-million pounds is no easy task so having Daniel's support will make a huge difference," Dave Whiteley, Hoylake RNLI's coxswain, added.

ANI