GIRVAN Lifeboat Crew helped provide a sixth birthday surprise to remember for brave Dundonald girl.

Ailsa Croll was celebrating her birthday with a family trip out to Ailsa Craig on Saturday September 19.

Ailsa was diagnosed aged two with aplastic anaemia, a rare and usually deadly blood disorder which destroys the bone marrow and red blood cells in the body.

She has endured two bone marrow transplants, a course of chemotherapy and total body irradiation all before turning six.

Little Ailsa was keen to set foot on Ailsa Craig so family and friends planned the trip was and when Girvan Lifeboat Crew heard about her they decided to give her a ‘Birthday to Remember’.

Ailsa was met at the Lifeboat Station by Second Coxswain Gary McGarvie, DLA Ian McClymont, and crew members Henry McMaster, Keith Woods, John Tait and Kerri-Anne Jardine.

After a VIP conducted tour of the station she was taken out to see the Lifeboat, the RNLB Silvia Burrell. Then, much to her surprise and delight, she put to sea.

Ailsa assisted coxswain Gary to recover a man overboard (Keith) twice. And also helped steer the boat back into the harbour.

Back in the station Ailsa was presented with a birthday card and gift from the crew, and a bag of lifeboat goodies, including a lifeboat teddy bear suitably christened ‘Silvia Gary’.

She left the station with a huge smile on her face, and set off on her trip to Ailsa Craig with her family and friends.