Thank you. We can’t do any of it without your help. Here’s how you can support us. Give online: Go to mountain.rescue.org.uk and click Donate. Join Basecamp: The simplest way to support us. You can even add a donation. Go to mountain.rescue.org.uk and click Basecamp to join. Leave a legacy: A gift to us in your Will allows you to support our future — even a small gift can make a big difference. And it’s the surest way to fund the equipment and training for the years to come as gifts are exempt from inheritance tax, capital gains tax and income tax, so the charity receives the full value of your bequest. Buy a book from us: We can’t promise you competitive prices or free postage but we can guarantee that for every book you buy, about a third of the cover price represents a donation to us. Go to mountain.rescue.org.uk and click on Shop. Buy a gift card: You can choose whether to give £5, £15 or £25 on behalf of a loved one. They get a lovely card, we get a much appreciated donation and you know you’ve helped make a difference to mountain rescue. You’ll find them in the online bookshop. Raise funds on our behalf: You’ll be providing funds and raising awareness. Email fundraisingofficer@ mountain.rescue.org.uk to find out more.
Throughout the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, like every other business, charity and organisation, Mountain Rescue England and Wales and all its member teams have had to rethink how they operate. From the start, the focus has been on how best to protect our volunteer team members – many of whom are on the front line as NHS professionals in their ‘day jobs’.
the virus spreading among our team members. MREW was also able to exert some central purchasing muscle to source and distribute items of vital PPE kit to the teams. As far as possible in the outdoor environment, team members follow the standard guidance about washing hands and maintaining sterility. However, the very act of carrying a stretchered casualty to a waiting ambulance brings up to eight team members into close proximity. Those team members (and their families) might then have to self-isolate for up to fourteen days and this in turn reduces the pool available for the next rescue. And the next. Meanwhile, as training opportunities dried up, team members have taken to devising other ways to keep their bodies and minds fit and ready for action, often raising funds for their teams at the same time. These have included testing their rope skills with vertiginous teddy bear ‘rescues’ or donning mountain rescue kit, boots and a full rucksack, to climb the equivalent of the highest mountains in the UK on their own home stairs. Others have shared their regular quiz nights with colleagues further afield, for a bit of fun, or taken the opportunity to set up medical and search scenarios via online conferencing, testing their members’ medical knowledge and radio skills. However long this takes, teams and their members will always respond, where possible, to those who get into difficulty in the outdoors. One day, we hope, our beautiful hills and mountains will be open again but, until then, we’d like to thank all those who have supported us by heeding the advice and staying away. Stay safe! And stay well!
Some of that focus has necessarily been on getting the vital #stayhome message across to the general public. In late March, the threat of imminent lockdown combined with the instruction to continue taking daily exercise, led to walkers and tourists heading en masse to the hills and beauty spots of England and Wales. One mountain rescue team in Cumbria had to deal with a female walker who had been self-isolating on return from Italy and, in North Wales, the busier teams — whose incident figures are already higher than anywhere else in the UK — report real problems with tourists getting into trouble, taking risks, getting injured and taking up space in ambulances and hospital beds. Clearly, we needed a much stronger message and mountain rescuers echoed the words of Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Slattery, chairman of Cumbria Local Resilience Forum when he noted that ‘a national emergency shutdown of businesses and schools is not an excuse for a holiday.’ That stronger message was to stay local and away from the mountains. And, largely it worked. Over the Easter period (and since), call-out numbers reduced dramatically. In the Lake District, for example, between 23 March and 21 April, there were just three incidents, compared to around 40 for the same period in 2019. From an operational point of view, the priority has been resilience, making sure that as many team members are as available as possible for call-outs, if and when they occur. This has meant using online platforms for meetings and the postponement of training at local and national level, to reduce the chance of
Opposite page: Woodhead MRT awaiting a helicopter evacuation for a casualty © Woodhead MRT. Right: Mountain rescue vehicle illustration © Judy Whiteside.
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