A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy from Northwich has been braving the winter cold to raise money for a lifeboat charity.

Rhys Chittenden, from Northwich, has joined forces with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity that save lives at sea around the British Isles.

Working in shifts with other volunteers, the avid lifeboat fanatic braved the cold twice in Northwich before Christmas, and more recently in Winsford.

The Davenham CE Primary School pupil said: “It’s really helping them and all the money goes into the bank so they can raise money for the RNLI.”

Proud mum, Sarah Chittenden, from Northwich, admitted her son's hobby has ‘taken over their lives’.

“I'm very proud," she said. "It's taken over our lives but it’s a really nice hobby for him to do as it helps other people.

“Before Christmas we did two long Saturday’s in Northwich. It was absolutely freezing. You wouldn’t find many kids willing to that.

“But he was just like ‘well I’m helping other people. I don’t have to play all the time mummy’. How many six-year-olds would go and say that?”

Rhys’ love for lifeboats started when he was four, and claims to know every lifeboat in the UK.

He’s yet to ride in a real lifeboat, though he has been in one of the RNLI’s hovercrafts in Morecambe, which he said was ‘really, really fun’.

He also got to pilot a lifeboat simulator at the RNLI’s college in Poole, a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset.

He said: “We went into the simulator and we saw all of the buttons and we got to drive it. It was really, really good. I loved it.”

When he grows up, Rhys said he wants to be a coast guard so he can rescue people like a ‘superhero’, and insisted his love for lifeboats will be a love for life.

“I will never, ever stop loving lifeboats!” he proclaimed, and said he plans to get involved in many more fundraisers in 2015.

His mum said: “He’s just really involved with the RNLI and likes to tell everyone about the lifeboats. He spreading the bug at school now and telling everyone about it.

“They raise more money when he’s there as well with his little outfit.”

With his cheeky smile, Rhys agreed: “It is quite cute isn’t it?