33 statutory agencies 2761 call•outs 2155 mountain rescue team deployments 2011 persons assisted without a mountain rescue call-out 4 NO CHANGE FROM 2018
I cannot sit here in April 2020, thinking about writing an annual review that runs from May through to April, without saying a few words about the pandemic happening around us. It’s been a fast-changing situation but, from the start of the coronavirus, we have endeavoured to give clear advice to all our member teams.
Our aim has always been to ensure we could continue to be there for the injured walkers and climbers who needed our assistance, and on call to find those who are vulnerable and missing from home, whilst also protecting our team members. Their health was — and continues to be — our priority. Our teams and regions have come together to share paperwork and plans, and information about their availability and resources, coordinated by a small ‘Covid-19 team’, meeting online weekly. Mountain rescue members have stood up to be counted. Beyond our own organisation, we have shared information with other volunteer search and rescue organisations — Scottish Mountain Rescue, Lowland Rescue and British Cave Rescue — in the belief that working together was the only way to ensure we could all manage the pandemic. Covid-19 may currently be foremost in our thoughts but, throughout the year, our team members have continued to give their time freely to help others who need their help. The incident statistics for 2019 are not yet finalised but the current figures show that we attended 2761 incidents — up again on 2018. During 2019, we visited every region to talk with the membership about what MREW does for its members and the feedback from that has produced some great ideas to take forward. In summer, the Peak District teams hosted the Princes’ Charity Day and Mid Pennine teams worked with the JD Foundation on their Charity Day. We help put together these annual events to give something back to the children’s charities supported by our Royal patron and some of our major funders. In September, we held our national conference, the first for several years and one of the best I have been to!
In November, we signed off a new constitution, taking our charity into a CIO — a major project which has taken about four years to complete. Looking at our work over winter, it’s fair to say it was another wet one, with a number of teams once again called in to support their flooded communities. Flooding has become a core task for mountain rescue, alongside supporting the police and ambulance service, and going to the aid of hill and fell walkers, climbers and mountaineers who need our help. Due to the coronavirus, this year we will have our first online AGM in May. This would have been my last, after six years in the role, but I agreed to continue for a further two years — little knowing what was around the corner with Covid-19! Finally, when this pandemic is done and life returns to ‘normal’, mountain rescue teams — and MREW — will need your support, perhaps more than ever, to enable us to continue supporting our communities across England and Wales. Stay safe and well out there!
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100,000 volunteer rescuer–hours
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Opposite: Upper Wharfedale team members attend a female walker on Malham Moor © Sara Spillet. Above: Duddon & Furness team members in action during their Peer Review weekend © DFMRT.
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