Coastguard Ray looking forward to life in China

Ray, 55, who has been a member of Fleetwood’s coastal emergency team since 2009, is jetting out to live in China with wife Anna.

The couple, who have been married two years, will live in the city of Nanning in the Gunagxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China, where Anna originally hails from.

They are due to fly out within the next two weeks.

Ray, who has worked at the NHS Pensions Agency at Hesketh House, Fleetwood, for over 20 years, said: “I am effectively taking a five year career break and we’re going out there to help look after Anna’s grand-daughter while the mum studies and works. If things work out, and I hope it does, we would make it more permanent than five years. I’m enrolling in college over there to learn the local language. I’m really looking forward to it, it’s a new adventure.”

It will be something of a home-coming for Anna, who has lived in England since 2003.

Mark, who has lived in Fleetwood all his life and has a grown-up daughter from a previous relationship, said: “I’ll miss my involvement with the Coastguards, it has been a brilliant experience and made me more confident.”