Whitby lifeboat station was stunned to find a huge cash donation posted through their letterbox last week. A crumpled paper bag pushed through the letterbox of the Yorkshire lifeboat station turned out to contain more than £3,000 in cash from a mystery benefactor.

The anonymous donation – nearly thrown away as rubbish by the crew – was posted direct to Whitby Lifeboat Museum, which is being used by the lifeboatmen during work to build a new boathouse. It was found last Monday morning by lifeboat mechanic Glenn Goodberry, who was stunned to open up the bag, which was inside a plastic bag, to find it was full of wads of notes – adding up to £3,160.

He said yesterday: ‘When I came in I just thought it was a bag of rubbish someone had stuck through the letterbox. It’s scary to think it could have been chucked out and we wouldn’t have known.’

There was no note attached with the money and lifeboat Press officer Pete Thomson is hoping the donor will come forward so they can be thanked. He said: “It is not unusual for people to drop donations through the letterbox but we have never had anything like this before.’