The race to raise £100,000 for Falmouth RNLI by the end of the year has been given another boost after the man behind the Cornish Cinema Club pledged his support.

Warwick Royden's company, Skylight Cinema, operates the local cinema club which is screening top films at four locations across Cornwall throughout July and August. He has taken a number of RNLI collection buckets and will be encouraging film-goers to donate to the RNLI appeal.

The big screen locations are at Truro Cattle Market, Penlee Open Air Theatre in Penzance, Dairyland near Newquay, Caerhays beach and Cornucopia at the Stadium Retail Park, St Austell. In addition to the money collected, Mr Royden has said that Skylight will also make a donation at the end of the season.

He said: "I was looking for a local charity to support where you could see a real difference is made and thought the RNLI was a good one. On average we have 1,000 people at each event, which is a lot of people in one place so hopefully we can raise some money."

Paul Wickes, deputy chair of the Falmouth RNLI fundraising committee, said: "Without people like Warwick we are not going to reach our target so we are grateful that he, and others, are helping."

Falmouth RNLI is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and also launched its appeal to raise £100,000. The money will go towards the cost of upgrading the lifeboat station to enable it to house a new inshore lifeboat when it arrives in two years. The hope is that the money can be raised by the end of the anniversary year.