Support your local MRT

[Simon Stewart]

I spent today at my local Mountain Rescue team giving the kit its 6 monthly inspection and I got to thinking how many of you know what service these teams actually give. Most will think that they are there purely to help walkers or climbers from the local fells or mountains but these days this is just a small part of what they do. My local team has over 60 callouts a year, manned by volunteers and funded by donations but only about ten percent of these callouts are for people on the fell. What they actually do is give invaluable support to the Fire, Ambulance and Police service, searching for missing vulnerable’s, from children to altzimer sufferers, recovering bodies, giving ambulance support during the winter, technical rope rescue in confined spaces, quarries etc and supplying swift water and flood teams wherever and whenever they are needed, 24/7 365 days a year. It’s a credit to the team members that although they are volunteers, the professional services see them as equals and also actually sometimes receive training from the rescue team members. What I’m trying to get over is when you see them fundraising, don’t ignore them thinking that what they do is just for the walking, climbing community, It’s not!