Diary - February 2009

Tuesday 24th February
Presentation to Vaughns Country Cafe, Tockholes and Great House Barn, Rivington
Today team members Elaine Gilliland and Paul Brain visited firstly Vaughns Country Cafe in Tockholes to present a certificate to recognise their support over the last 12 months.

Later in the day they also visited Great House Barn Tea Rooms at Rivington to present a certificate and plaque for continued support to the team.



The team would like to thank all venues who host our collection tins and for the continued support from the patrons of these establishments, without whom our team would not be able to continue the work it does in our local community.

Monday 23rd February
Incident 22/2009
At 15.53hrs this afternoon the team was paged by a GMP Missing Person Search Manager regards a missing woman in the Hindley area of Wigan, in circumstances giving the Police cause for concern regards her welfare.

A Police search operation including officers and the GMP Air Support Unit helicopter was gearing up and the team was asked to be available if the immediate search area under consideration proved negetive.

By late afternoon the initial search efforts by the Police had not located the woman, and the teams assistance was therefore required to cover a very large amount of nearby open land, woodlands, stream courses, ponds and a lake. The subject of this search had actually been the subject of a similar search by the team in September 11th 2008 (see Incident 90/2008) and so the search areas were known to the team.

Due to the large areas concerned our colleagues in Rossendale and Pendle MRT were called to assist alongside Cheshire Lowland Search and Rescue Team. We also called in Iain Nicholson from Bowland Pennine MRT and his specially trained trail dog 'Mij' who readers may recall found this missing woman on the search back in September last year.

The ensueing large search operation was co ordinated and contolled by the Bolton MRT, with us also providing full catering for all involved from our Catering Trailer. (its first 'operational incident' use since purchase) The first search parties were deployed at 20.08hrs with the last searchers returning to the search control / RVP at 23.39hrs.


The scene of the search RVP in Hindley

Unfortunately the search drew a blank, and as all the tired searchers returned home Police enquiries continued to try and establish the womans whereabouts.

The following assets were utilised in the evening search;

• Bolton MRT, 27x Call Out list members and two members of our Support Group providing catering support. (29x Bolton MRT members in total)
• Rossendale and Pendle MRT, 14x team members.
• Cheshire Lowland Search and Rescue Team, 10x members including one of their Lowland Search and Rescue Dog Teams, handler Dominique Shrubb and Dog Tess.
• Bowland Pennine MRT / SARDA (Wales) trail dog team, handler Iain Nicholson and Dog Mij.
• Bowland Pennine MRT / SARDA (England) search dog team, handler Alison Nicholson and Dog Floss.
• Bowland Pennine MRT member Simon Harris, acting as 'navigator' to handler Iain Nicholson.
• GMP Missing Person Search Managers, 2x.

...also on Monday 23rd...
Incident 21/2009
At 14:31 today NWAS Control (Manchester) paged the team asking for assistance with a casualty in a quarry in the Foxholes Lane area of Horwich.

On reaching the RV site the team decided to re-locate to Georges Lane as the casualty had been located in Ridgeway Delf Quarry, in the Montcliffe area of Horwich.

The female casualty had fallen 4m from a lower section of the quarry, with her shoulder taking the force of the impact. The casualty had phoned her husband, who in turn had called 999.


The scene of the incident, at the base of Ridgeway Delf Quarry

Due to the mechanics of the accident the woman was treated for a suspected spine injury, so stabilising the casualty was the first priority. Due to the conditions, with the cloud closing in, the team assisted in sheltering the casualty from the elements.

After receiving Entonox pain relieving gas and morphine, the casualty was loaded on to a spine board before loading on to our Bell Mountain Rescue stretcher.

The casualty was carried to the awaiting ambulance before continuing her journey to hospital.


The casualty is evacuated by team members to the waiting NWAS ambulance.

In total 11 full team callout members were involved in this incident with further members who had 'stood down responding'.

NWAS resources involved in this incident included an Emergency Ambulance, two Urban Search & Rescue vehicles, and two Area Operations Managers.

At the conclusion of this incident the team received a pager call informing the team our assistance was being considered for a search in the Hindley area of Wigan later in the evening. See incident 22/2009 for further details.

Friday 20th February
Emergency call from NWAS (Manchester) followed by stand down.
Today at 13.02hrs NWAS (Manchester) paged the team regarding an emergency call they had received from a man with chest pains, unaware of his exact location but in woodlands in the Amberswood Common area of Ince Moss, Hindley, Wigan. NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control consulted with our Team Leader Garry Rhodes regarding an 'easting and northing' they had received from the caller, in a bid to determine his exact location for the responding Emergency Ambulance crew.

At 13.09hrs our Team Leader based on the information he had received from NWAS had paged the team to go to standby status, this being quickly followed at 13.11hrs by a stand down from NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control when it was established by the Ambulance crew on scene that the teams services would not be required.

As this call only involved our Team Leader in telephone calls and no team members were mobilised, it has not been recorded by the team as an incident within our Incident Listings, but is recorded here for information purposes and to note the activities of the team.

Thursday 19th February
Visit to Base / HQ by Bolton and District Round Table.
This evening the team played host to a visit at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ by seven members of Bolton and District Round Table, including their Chairman Craig Knights.

On hand to meet the Round Tablers was Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE and long serving Team Call Out list member Chris Tennant. Their visit was arranged to introduce the team to Bolton and District Round Table members, as Craig Knights has very kindly chosen to support the team as his Chairmans' Charity this year.

A very interesting and informative night was the comment heard from all seven representatives present from Bolton and District Round Table, who were amazed at the work we do in the team, and in the wide range of search and rescue equipment and skills we have at our disposal.

Craig and his fellow Round Tablers will be joining the team on exercise soon to get a more practical 'hands on' experience of what we do, keep watching the website for news of their involvement in one of our exercises ! They are also interested in volunteering to be 'exercise bodies' for our trainee search dogs to find.

Garry and Chris would like to thank the Round Tablers present tonight for their obvious interest in what the team is about and their enthusiasm for wishing to support the team.

Sunday 15th February
Kind donation from Team Member Andy Kench.
Today the team treasurer received a very kind donation of £10.00 from team Call Out List member Andrew Kench. Thanks Andy from all your colleagues in the team.

Saturday 14th February
Donation from casualty involved in Incident 12-2009, Mrs Roma Clough.
Today we received a very kind, thoughtful and generous donation from Mrs Roma Clough, the casualty involved in Incident 12/2009, which happened on Sunday 18th January this year.

Roma Clough of Heaton, Bolton, has kindly donated £150.00 to the team on behalf of her husband, daughter, sister and brother-in-law. In a letter with her superb donation, Roma stated to Garry Rhodes our Team Leader; "I would like to thank you and your wonderful dedicated team whom I can only describe as angels for the help you gave me on Sunday 18.01.09."

Roma has also told the team she will be writing to her local MP regarding support for MRTs over the national MRT campaign to obtain VAT relief on our equipment purchases.

The whole team wishes Roma a continuing recovery back to full health so she can once more return to walking in the hills and dales, see also website 'news' entry dated Sunday 18th January 2009

...also on Saturday 14th...
Incident 20/2009
At 09.18hrs this morning our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE received a direct call from NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre, just in advance of their pager call out to the team at 09.19hrs, regarding the teams immediate assistance with an incident in the Blackford Bridge area of Bury.

NWAS (Manchester) had responded to the report of an injured male, to discover a 40 years old male at the bottom of the very steep river banking of the River Roch just off Roach Street in the Blackford Bridge area of Bury, requiring our specialist steep ground rescue assistance.

A full, detailed, team pager call out was made at 09.26hrs, with our first team member Steve Nelson, arriving at the Incident RVP at 09.45hrs to immediately start liaising with the NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew from Ramsbottom Ambulance Station, who had responded to this incident.

The injured man, who had also been in the River Roch for a while, had suffered a very serious leg fracture which was treated by the NWAS crew, with two of our members, Team Doctor Clare Whitney and team opiate trained casualty carer Mark Scott also joining the NWAS crew to offer various pain relief to the casualty, including Entonox gas, and powerful pain killing drugs.

The casualty was initially placed on a ambulance scoop stretcher, with his injured right leg splinted, then placed onto a mountain rescue 'Bell MR Stretcher', very difficult given the casualty was at the bottom of a steep slope immediately alongside the River Roch.


The casualty site.

A double rope assisted haul was then made to get the stretcher party and the casualty back up the slope, where he was transferred into the NWAS Ambulance at 10.48hrs for onward transfer to Bury Hospital.


Team Training Officer Andy Ryding checks the rope safety system.

Throughout this rescue all team members taking part were wearing their team issue PFDs - personal flotation devices or life jackets to our readers - helmets and harnesses.

Our Team Doctor accompanied the casualty to hospital, assisting the NWAS Ambulance crew with his continuing treatment en route to hospital. In total 20x Bolton MRT team members and our four team Mountain Rescue Landrover Ambulances attended this incident, with 4x other members stood down responding.

Alongside the NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance, a small number of GMP Police Officers also attended. The team would like to take this opportunity to thank the residents of 'Riverside Cottage' and 'Nr 22 Roach Street' with putting up with us trampling through their riverside gardens to effect this rescue, and for all our vehicles and commotion disrupting their Valentines Day morning lie in !

Thursday 12th February
Donation from Horwich RMI Harriers and Athletics Club arising from our involvement in Winter Hill Fell Race 2009.
Today the team received a large and very generous donation from Horwich RMI Harriers and Athletics Club, following our provision of Standby Rescue Cover for their Winter Hill Fell Race on Sunday 8th February this year. See 'news item' dated Sunday 8th February 2009 for a comprehensive report on this event.

The Race Organiser Tony Varley in a kind letter with the tremendous £300.00 donation thanked the team for its valued help with this event.

We have been associated with this event since its inception, this being its 27th Year, and we are proud of our long involvement and equally grateful for the support we have always received from the race organisers.

Next years Winter Hill Fell Race is provisionally scheduled for Sunday 14th February 2010, and as ever the Bolton MRT will be attending to provide its fullest support to this strenuous local fell race.

...also on Thursday 12th...
Lecture to the Rotary Club of Horwich
Today honoury Life Vice President Tony McNally was kindly invited by the Rotary Club of Horwich to give a lecture on the work of the team.

At the lecture the Rotarians asked Tony many questions involving the work of the team and "how things have changed since my day!" (Tony used to be a full team call out member).

The team would like to thank all the members of the Rotary Club of Horwich for their support of the team and Tony would like to thank all members present at the talk for their hospitality and interest.

Wednesday 11th February
Kind donation from team friend and valued supporter Alan Baxendale.
Today we are very pleased to announce the receipt of a very kind £45.00 donation, which can be gift aided, from valued and much appreciated team friend Alan Baxendale of the Mark Masons of East Lancashire.

Alan attends many Masonic Lodges on lecture visits and in lieu of his expenses he always asks where appropriate that a donation be made in place to the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team.

Alan recently visited the Kentdale Lodge of Mark Masons No 195 within the Cumberland and Westmoreland Province, based in Kendal, and as usual in lieu of his expenses he requested a collection be made for our team resuting in the kind £45.00 donation.
,br> The team extends its thanks to Alan Baxendale for supporting us in this way and to the Masons of the Mark Masons of East Lancashire for their much appreciated continuing support of the team.

...also on Wednesday 11th...
Donation from the casualty involved in Incident 11 - 2009, Mr Alan Thompson.
Today we received a very kind and thoughtful donation of £100.00 from Mr Alan Thompson of Bolton, the mountain biker we rescued, working alongside an NWAS (Manchester) emergency ambulance crew, when he suffered an ankle injury in a fall from his mountain bike on Saturday 17th January this year, whilst mountain biking on the fringes of Smithills Moor, in the vicinity of Holdens Farm.
,br> Alan in a letter with his very generous donation explained that he suffered a broken ankle, which resulted in an operation to insert a plate and 9x screws to hold everything in place !

All the team wishes Alan a full and speedy recovery back to full health and mountain biking on our hills once again.

...also on Wednesday 11th...
Donation from Friendship Lodge 2488, R.A.O.B. G.L.E. Limited, Charity Prize Bingo Session.
Cancelled once due to snowy weather, and held on the evening of Tuesday 3rd February 2009 at the Crown Hotel, Horwich, guess what it snowed again ! The Friendship Lodge 2488, R.A.O.B. G.L.E. Limited held a Charity Prize Bingo Session with the aim of raising funds for our team.

Today we received the very generous £72.50 proceeds of this evening as a donation to the team for the good work we do in the local community.

The team would like to express its thanks to the members of the Friendship Lodge 2488, R.A.O.B. G.L.E. Limited for organising this evening, to all who braved the snow and ice to attend this evening and to the management of the Crown Hotel, Horwich, for so kindly agreeing to host this event. You are all very much appreciated by the team for your kind support.

Tuesday 10th February
Visit to Base / HQ by 401st Manchester Scout Troop
The team this evening played host to a visit from the Scouts and Leaders of the 401st Manchester Scout Troop, at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

Team members Matthew Hailwood, Elaine Gilliland, Neil Warburton and Susan Purtill were on hold to demonstrate the teams kit to the enthusiastic and interested Scouts.

At the end of their visit the 401st Manchester Scout Troop very kindly donated £50.00 to the team, with one Scout also contributing a very kind £2.00 donation from his own pocket.

Monday 9th February
Donation in the memory of Mrs Elsie Fenton
Today we received a letter of Mr Peter Fenton of Smithills, Bolton, informing us that following the death of his mother Mrs Elsie Fenton, donations were made in her memory to our colleagues at Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team in Cumbria.

In amongst the donations however was one of £12.00 specifically for the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team from F.R.Gray.

The team would like to extend its gratitude for this donation and offers its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Mrs Elsie Fenton.

Sunday 8th February
Incident 19/2009
At 19.29hrs this evening during a period of snowfall throughout the Greater Manchester area, we were paged by NWAS (Manchester) regards going to standby in case the road conditions worsened causing problems for their Ambulances progressing to incidents.

In consultation with NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre's Manager, our Team Leader called out an appropriate small number of team members to crew our 4x Team Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, based on standby at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

12x team members spent the evening on standby, as the snowfall continued along with falls of sleet and hail.

As the evening progressed a slight rise in temperatures saw road conditions considerably improve and at 23.30hrs the team was stood down by NWAS (Manchester). All four of our Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances are equipped in winter with snowchains, towing strops, one metal shovel each and five snow shovels each, whilst two of our four vehicles also have a front mounted winch, wheel blocks, winch and towing strops.

...also on Sunday 8th...
Incident 18/2009
During the concluding part of our involvement with providing standby rescue cover on the Winter Hill Fell Race, whilst most of the teams resources were at the Lower House car park area in Rivington, we were approached by a member of a mountain biking party to say his friend had suffered a serious injury nearby.

The 28 year old male casualty (from the Penwortham/Preston area) had suffered a suspected dislocated left shoulder and was barely 100m from our control location.

We were first alerted at 12:40 hours and within minutes team members including one of our doctors (Dr Clare Whitney) were on scene providing casualty care to the mountain biker.


© Carl Silver

With the casualty being in considerable pain morphine and entenox gas were administered whilst his shoulder was being splinted. He was then evacuated the short 100m distance to the main car park where the team was assembled, and then collected by an NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance for onward traqnsfer to Royal Preston Hospital.

In total 14 team members were directly involved in this incident from the 36 call out list members on hand in the car park.


© Carl Silver

It was unfortunate for the man involved that he had this accident, but perhaps fortunate that circumstances put us immediately on hand to assist him.

...also on Sunday 8th...
Winter Hill Fell Race
Today the team provided its usual standby rescue cover provision for the gruelling Winter Hill Fell Race, organised excellently as ever by Horwich RMI Harriers and Athletic Club.

Now in its 27th year (the team has attended every event), the course takes in an 11 mile route with 2700 feet of ascent, centred on Winter Hill, starting and finishing at Rivington Hall Barn.

This year, 36 Call Out List members (including three of our 'reserve' members) provided cover at each of the nine checkpoints, with 'spot pick up crews', radio links, start/finish liaison and control and communications (MRT radio network only).

In addition four members of our Support Group, Gillian Gregory, Iain Clarkson, Howard & Teresa Gilliland provided an endless supply of bacon, sausage butties (slightly toasted bread!), soup and hot drinks to the team from our new Catering Trailer since its inaugural outing since its purchase last year.

174 runners entered today with the temperatures at the Lower House car park, (in comparison with the 12°C temperatures enjoyed last year), starting at -4°C, slowly increasing to zero! Four runners failed to complete the exacting course, and we are pleased to announce none of the runners required our medical assistance. (for the record the first runner to complete the course did so in 1 hour 36 minutes after the 10am mass start.)

During the course of the event we were pleased to welcome at our Lower House RVP former team members husband & wife Dave and Trish Dorgan (good luck Dave with your forthcoming knee operation, with the new knee will we expect to see you taking part in this event next year?)

The local Lancashire Constabulary traffic officer also called in to see the team.

With the team vehicles, our control trailer and catering trailer (along with a myriad of team members private vehicles) generated a fair bit of interest from passing members of the public, so much so that we received on the spot cash donations for the work we do of £23.55.

The team is happy to provide standby rescue cover for this event (as with other fell running events on our moors) and to support our local fell running community.

During the concluding part of this event the team was notified of an incident nearby unconnected to this event. See incident 18/2009.

...also on Sunday 8th...
Another very kind donation from St.John's Church Men's Fellowship
Today we are pleased to announce the receipt of a £30.00 donation from the St.John's Church Men's Fellowship, further to a £21.00 donation immediately following their visit to our base / HQ on the evening of 27th January 2009.

In a very kind letter to our Secretary Gillian Gregory, Tom Foster, Chairman of St.John's Church Men's Fellowship stated, "Garry Rhodes and his team made us feel very welcome and we were certainly impressed by the professionalism and dedication shown toward a very important service from which so many have received help and support in often dangerous and difficult situations."

The whole team membership would like to thank all the members of St.John's Church Men's Fellowship for their kindness in donating to us a total of £51.00. (see also articles dated 5th February and 27th January 2009)

Thursday 5th February
Incident 17/2009
At 17.34hrs this evening we were paged by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service to mobilise as part of their PDA (Pre Determined Attendance) for structures and vertical line rescue, to the report of two children stuck at the top of a crane in Leigh.

With team members already on route to our vehicle garage locations based upon the initial page from GMFRS, a full team member call out page was then made at 17.41hrs.

GMFRS were also mobilising to this incident alongside NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) and GMP.

At circa 17.45hrs our first team member (Michael O'Brien) arrived on scene closely followed at 17.52hrs by team members Louise Jorgensen and George Pike.

It was quickly established that the responding GMFRS resources had managed to rescue the two children involved, a 13 year old boy and a 12 year old girl, both from Leigh, from their predicament. (the pair had been frightened by their ordeal and were very cold).

At 17.56hrs a full team 'Stand down' message was paged, by which time in addition to our three members already on scene, we had two of our Landrover Mountain Rescue Landrovers on route, and a total of 24x team members stood down on route.

GMFRS resources allocated to this multi agency response incident included 2x Pump Appliances from Leigh Fire Sation, 1x Pump Appliance from Bolton Central Fire Station and 1x Hydraulic Platform Appliance from Leigh Fire Station.

NWAS (Manchester) despatched a Rapid Response Vehicle, with GMP Officers also in attendance.

...also on Thursday 5th...
Donation from C.A.L.L. (Charities at a local level) Sutton Estate,
On the morning of 5th February 2009, four team members, Ken Oakes, Fred Taylor, George Pike and Elaine Gilliland travelled in one of the team vehicles to the Sutton Estate Community Centre in Bolton to receive a donation from C.A.L.L. On arrival at the Community Centre, we were met by Gillian Gregory, the team secretary and member of the team Support Group.

C.A.L.L. (Charities at Local Level), based on the Sutton Estate, have organised various events to celebrate the official opening of their Community Centre in October 2008 including raffles, face painting, football, cakes & refreshments, book sale, tombola, games and the sale of bric-a-brac. The group has selected Bolton Mountain Rescue Team as their nominated charity of the year.

We were all welcomed by David Green, Housing Officer of William Sutton Homes, (part of Affinity Sutton) who showed us into the office boardroom and warmed us all with a welcome cup of tea.

David then presented our Chairman, Ken, with a fantastic donation of £255.60 (raised during the celebration events by C.A.L.L.).



All members of the team and support group would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of C.A.L.L. for their hard work and generosity in raising funds for the team and wish them all the best with their Community Centre activities.

...also on Thursday 5th...
Kind letter of thanks received from St. John's Church Men's Fellowship
On the evening of Tuesday 27th January 2009, members of the St John's Church Men's Fellowship visited our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ, kindly donating £21.00, with a promise to raise a donation for the team.

Today our Team Leader, Garry Rhodes MBE, received a very kind letter of thanks from Tom Foster on behalf of the St. John's Church Men's Fellowship. In the letter Tom Foster stated "I want to take the opportunity, on behalf of all our members at St. John's Church Men's Fellowship, to thank you and your colleagues for the great evening spent at your HQ. You made us feel so welcome and we all appreciated that."

Tom went on to say "Before visiting we had heard of the team but in no way were we aware of the fantastic support you give to so many other agencies. Everyone was amazed at the amount of equipment you have and the expertise required to use it all."

Tom Foster ended his kind letter by promising us a £30.00 further donation is in the post, along with a confirmation that the members of the St. John's Church Men's Fellowship are indeed going to donate the proceeds of their annual bowling event to the team in late summer. (as we are invited to this perhaps we should start getting our bowling team together, including our Chairman Ken Oakes who by all accounts is a bit of a champion on the green)

(see also 'news' item dated 27th January 2009)

Monday 2nd February
Incident 16/2009
With wintry conditions persisting into the early evening, and with more snow showers forecast for later into the evening, at 18:30 this evening the team placed its 4 Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances on standby at our Ladybridge Hall base to be available in case of need, on behalf of NWAS (Lancashire) and NWAS (Greater Manchester) areas.

The team remained in constant liaison with both Ambulance controls and Lancashire Constabulary and Greater Manchester Police controls regarding any need on its services.

Our colleagues in Rossendale & Pendle MRT and Oldham MRT were also on crewed vehicle standby for similar taskings.

At 20:07 our BM2 vehicle with 4 crew members was despatched to assist a snow-stranded NWAS (Manchester) Rapid Response Vehicle in the Bryn area of Wigan.

With road conditions steadily improving throughout the evening including the majority of moorland roads in our area being clear, in consultation with both ambulance controls the team stood down from standby at our base at 23:00 to go back to normal pager contact.

In total 13 full team callout members were available at our base this evening.

...also on Monday 2nd...
Incident 15/2009
At 08:38 this morning we were paged by NWAS (Lancashire) to provide standby assistance to the Ambulance Service due to the wintry road conditions prevailing and the forecast of more snow on the way.



Balancing a potential requirement to also be available for NWAS (Manchester) due to similar wintry conditions, it was decided to despatch one Landrover Mountain Rescue ambulance to the requested standby location of Darwen Ambulance Station (Two team members were also on immediate standby in case of calls on the NWAS (Manchester) side of our operational area).

Three team members crewed our BM1 vehicle and remained on standby at Darwen Ambulance Station until stood down by NWAS (Lancashire) control in the mid afternoon.

The three team members involved in this standby, Chris Greenhalgh, Fred Taylor and Joanne Stones would like to thank the resident staff at Darwen Ambulance Station for their hospitality and also the interest shown in the work of our team.

At this same time of our standby our colleagues at Rossendale & Pendle MRT were also on standby in their team area, as were our colleagues at Oldham MRT.

Sunday 1st February
Congratulations to Calder Valley Search and Rescue Teams new Team Leader.
Our team extends its congratulations to Al (Alexander) Day of Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team on his appointment as the new Team Leader at CVSRT, following the standing down of the previous incumbent Mick Smith due to other commitments.

Al Day a Paramedic in his full time job, was the Deputy Team Leader of CVSRT prior to being elected as the Team Leader of CVSRT. Al is also known through the MR community for his work on the national MR Party Leaders course, as an organiser / instructor.

Calder Valley SRT is like our team, a member of the regional MR body, the Mid Pennine Search and Rescue Organisation; MPSRO, and covers the South Pennine area centred upon Hebden Bridge.

...also on Sunday 1st...
Incident 14/2009
At 13:35 today, our Team Leader was contacted by NWAS (Manchester) with regards to a casualty situated in the Rivington / Anglezarke region, with the casualty reported to be on a reservoir footpath.

NWAS (Manchester) reported they were passing the call to NWAS (Lancashire) and for the team to expect a call from them.

Call out contact Dave Healey obtained more details from NWAS (Lancashire) as our Team Leader prepared to mobilise the other 15 team members who were already at our Ladybridge Base HQ refreshing skills required for next weekends Winter Hill fell race.

With more information received from NWAS (Lancashire) it was established the call to the injured walker was on the Eastern shore of Anglezarke Reservoir. This location is the operational area of our neighbouring colleagues at Bowland Pennine MRT, and therefore before making any response our Team Leader immediately liaised with the TL of BPMRT, Phil O'Brien, regarding our mobilisation.

It was agreed between the leaders that those Bolton MRT members available would make an immediate response and that BPMRT would be called out by their leader to provide direct support.

All four Bolton Mountain Rescue LandRover Ambulances responded to the incident in the Anglezarke area.

Shortly after 14:00 we received a stand down message from Ambulance Control as the NWAA Helimed 08 air ambulance had managed to land very near to the casualty, and was in a position to air-lift her direct to Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Our colleagues at Bowland Pennine MRT were also stood down at this time.

At the conclusion of this incident we were made aware by the local Lancashire Constabulary Officer that a search of car parks in the Rivington area was taking place with regards to locating the car of a missing Adlington man, in circumstances giving cause for concern for the police. Upon return to Ladybridge Lancashire Constabulary control room informed us that the man involved had now been located safe and well. This potential search incident is not recorded in our incident figures but is mentioned here to illustrate the overall work of the team.

Diary - January 2009

Saturday 31st January
Very generous donation from Dunscar Conservative Club.
Today we are very pleased to announce an extremely kind £200.00 donation from Dunscar Conservative Club, Bolton.

Each year the Dunscar Conservative Club organises a Charity Sportmen's Dinner, with the Club Committee then deciding which charities to support. Very thoughtfully they decided that we would be one of the charities they wished to support, hence this kind donation.

It was originally arranged that Dunscar Conservative Club Committee member Peter Morris would handover the donation to us at our Wednesday evening 21st January meeting, however this had to be cancelled, it was then arranged for Wednesday evening 28th January prior to our exercise start, but due to a family illness Peter had to cancel his visit.

Receiving the donation in the post, the team has now invited members of Dunscar Conservative Club to visit us at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ. The team would like to express its thanks and gratitude to all at Dunscar Conservative Club for kindly supporting the Bolton MRT.

Friday 30th January
Incident 13/2009
Well Incident 13 of 2009 appropriately happened on a Friday, but thankfully it resulted in a very happy outcome.

At 19.00hrs this cold winters evening our Team Leader Garry Rhodes was directly contacted by a GMP Missing Person Search Manager regarding the teams immediate help in a Police search operation rapidly gaining momentum for a missing 7 year old male child in the Little Hulton area of Worsley. A full team pager call out was made at 19.08hrs, with members being asked to respond urgently to this search given the age of the child and the cold weather of this evening. Our Team Leader, who lives near to the area where the child had last been seen - the childs home address, was able to respond very quickly to the Madams Wood Estate area of Little Hulton, arriving on scene at the search RVP, to liaise immediately with the first arriving Police Officers.

By 19.25hrs the GMP Air Support Unit helicopter, India 99, was overhead, commencing a search of the large areas of open land surrounding the Madams Wood Estate.

Just after 19.30hrs GMP received a report that the missing child had been located at a friends house, unaware of the mounting search operation, and with confirmation of this fact, a stand down to team members responding was paged at 19.40hrs.

At this stage, a large number of GMP Divisional Officers from Little Hulton and Swinton Police Stations were on scene, The GMP ASU was overhead, with a GMP Dog team en route along with a GMP Tactical Aid Unit team and two GMP Missing Person Search Managers.

In total 3x Bolton MRT members had arrived on scene by the time of the pager stand down with an additional 27x team members stood down responding to the search RVP, the team had mobilised all four of our vehicles, our Control, Command & Communications trailer, our Catering trailer and our Aire Shelter tent and its trailer.

Special mention and thanks are appropriate here to the large number of local residents who were offering their help in finding this 'missing' boy, and to all the local teenagers on their bikes on the estate who were reporting in to the Police that they had searched the local streets.

...also on Friday 30th...
Total Tyres of Leigh once more to our rescue.
Yet again Total Tyres of Leigh have come to our immediate rescue, repairing very quickly a punctured tyre on our BM3 Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulance, Incident Support Vehicle.

Total Tyres of Leigh have kindly supported the team for quite a few years now, and always promptly deal with

Thursday 29th January
Team Support Group update
This evenings meeting of our Support Group was their first of the year, with as ever a busy agenda, including an update from Support Group member Johanne Lamb, on the plans gathering momentum for the Support Groups Spring Fayre, due to be held at St Marys Church Hall, Horwich, on Saturday 9th May 2009.

Support Group member Gillian Gregory reported on our collection box totals to date this year, £122.98 so far (over £5,000.00 in 2008!) with a January 2009 total of 159 collection box sites in operation. (sadly this month we lost some sites but gained two new sites)

Our Support Group, which meets at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ on the last Thursday evening of every month, at 19.30hrs (7.30pm) is always on the look out for new members, full details can be found by clicking onto the link on the homepage.

Tuesday 27th January
Visit to Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ by St. John's Church Men's Fellowship.
This evening the many members of St. John's Church Men's Fellowship, Hindley Green, Wigan, visited our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ situated within the grounds of the NWAS HQ to meet with the team and gain an insight into our workings. They were met by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Trainee Team members Michael O' Brien and Elaine Gilliland and Full team member Peter Heeley.

Our Team Leader welcomed all to our Base / HQ whilst the other members supplied all the assembled guest visitors with a warming cup of tea, until our heating warmed up the place !

Garry gave all an introduction to the team, including a history of Mountain Rescue in the UK and the current operations of the team, then answered the many questions posed by our guests from St. John's Church Men's Fellowship. All present then met downstairs in our vehicle garage, where Elaine, Michael and Peter went through the search and rescue equipment carried on one of our two Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulance 'First Response' vehicles.

At this stage former Team Search Dog Handler Dave Marsh, currently National Search and Rescue Dog Association Secretary, joined us, and gave all an excellent account of his days as an operational Search and rescue dog handler with the team, of course Search Dog 'Chi' was also present, as 'vocal' as ever !

At the end of the evening all present thanked Garry, Peter, Elaine, Michael and Dave, plus of course 'Chi', for an excellent evening, and all stated they had no idea before the evening of how busy the team is, nor of the wide range of search and rescue work we are involved in.

A kind donation of £21.00 was made with a promise from the St. John's Church Men's Fellowship of Hindley Green, that they would hold a charity fundraising bowling event for the team in September, with Elaine and Michael promising to attend to represent the team.

Friday 23rd January
Team gains publicity from Parliamentary Adjournment Debate on 'Mountain Rescue Services' as presented by Dr. Brian Iddon, MP (Bolton, South East)(Labour)
Following the recent news thread on our website, see 'news' articles dated Sunday 18th January 2009 and Wednesday 21st January 2009, the team has benefitted from considerable press and media interest in what we do.

A live broadcast planned for the regional ITV 1 programme Granada Reports on Wednesday evening 21st January was only cancelled when the outside broadcast unit 'went technical' ie it broke down. Our Radio Officer, Dave Healey, who works for ITV Granada, didn't fix it in time!

None the less Geoff Seddon our Deputy Leader was interviewed live on BBC Greater Manchester Radio on the Thursday morning 22nd January programme, adding weight to Dr. Brian Iddons Adjournment Debate.

Similarly our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was interviewed on the same topic by the daily newspaper, the Bolton News. Who in turn are incredibly supportive of the team.

Dr. Brian Iddon MP was we believe featured himself on the morning BBC 1 / TV News Report on Wednesday 21st January 2009, and on the evenings ITV Regional News Reports, on each occasion very kindly mentioning the work of his 'local' MRT, the Bolton MRT.

...also on Friday 23rd...
Kind letter of thanks received from the North West Ambulance Service.
This morning our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, received a very kind letter of thanks from Steve Hynes, Head of Service, North West Ambulance Service Greater Manchester Area)

In his letter Steve Hynes stated "I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to you for the excellent support received from Bolton Mountain Rescue Team during the key dates of this Christmas and the New Year period. The assistance you kindly provided was greatly appreciated.

May I wish you both personally and as an organisation our very best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2009."

The Team places considerable pride in its relationship with the North West Ambulance Service, both in the Greater Manchester Area and the Lancashire Area, and we in turn wish all in the North West Ambulance Service all the very best for 2009, and may we continue to further develop and strengthen our already excellent joint working relationships.

...also on Friday 23rd...
3x Incidents this week that 'nearly involved us !'
On Monday 19th January 2009, the Greater Manchester area and parts of South Lancashire suffered heavy yet localised snowfalls, prompting the MRTs of Oldham, Rossendale and Pendle, and ourselves to prepare for possible call outs to assist the North West Ambulance Service, as is usually the case whenever it snows !

At 14.09hrs we were paged to contact NWAS (Lancashire) to discuss the teams availability of four wheel drive ambulances given the heavy snowfalls starting to occur in the Darwen area. Our colleagues at Rossendale and Pendle MRT were similarly contacted regards the snow falling in the Rossendale and Rawtenstall areas.As these were only precautionary calls from NWAS (Lancashire) neither ourselves nor RPMRT mobilised.

As the evening progressed NWAS (Greater Manchester) contacted our Team Leader direct to discuss the teams availability, along with similar calls to that of RPMRT and Oldham MRT. As it was only Oldham MRT actually deployed this evening, searching snowbound roads in their peakland team area. Nevertheless our Team Leader and Deputy Leader had to make plans in case the team was called, as did the Leader of RPMRT, and remain in contact with NWAS (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) Control Centres.

In the early hours of Wednesday 21st January we were paged at 01.09hrs by NWAS (Greater Manchester) regards the report of a man in difficulty on the moors above Rochdale. As this is RPMRTs operational area the call was passed on to RPMRT immediately with our Team Leader then in liaison with the Team Leadrer of RPMRT in case any assistance was required from our team to RPMRT as the circumstances of the call indicated a search may be necessary. It was soon determined that our team was not required and at 01.30hrs our team members were paged to stand down. For a full account of this incident refer to the website of RPMRT via our 'links' section, and view their Incident Nr 5/2009

On Thursday 22nd January we were paged by Greater Manchester Police at 12.42hrs, regards the teams early notification of possibly being required to search the Moses Gate Country Park area of Farnworth, for a missing 'high risk' missing person. The team was placed on standby by pager, as GMP continued their enquiries throughout the early afternoon. Within a couple of hours Police investigations had resulted in the downgrading of the 'at risk' catagory of this missing person, and the teams services were no longer required, with a stand down being paged at 14.08hrs.

All of the above involved our Team Leader and Deputy Leader in various planning matters, yet did not ultimately lead to a full team call out, and all are described above to record the activity level of the team, despite none of these calls being recorded in our Incident listings.

Thursday 22nd January
Visit to Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ by 7th Tyldesley (St Ambrose Barlow) Guides
This evening 28 Guides and their two Leaders from the 7th Tyldesley (St Ambrose Barlow) Guides visited our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE had to be on his best behaviour as amongst the young Guides attending was his niece Hannah Rhodes.

After an introduction to the team by Garry Rhodes, Trainee Team Member Elaine Gilliland then described what it was like to be a (female) trainee team member.

This was followed by Team Council member Sue Purtil describing what it is like to be one of the relatively small number of women in our team compared to the majority of members being men. (Webmaster - basically they look after us and keep all us men 'in check!')

The 28 Guides were then split into three 'workshops' based around their patrols (Dolphins, Penguins and Puffins), with team members Mark Scott, Elaine Gilliland, Sue Purtill, Chris Tennant, David Carter and Peter Heeley showing the young girls present our Casualty Care equipment, our Vacuum mattress and splints all culminating in a 'blue light' ride around the grounds of Ladybridge Hall for all the Guides in one of our Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances.



At the end of the evening all the Guides agreed they had had a fantastic time with us, with the following entries serving as examples of their interest as written down in our Base / HQ 'Visitors Book.'

• "Dolphins - we all enjoyed the Land Rover and learning how to carry people on stretchers, Thank you."
• "Hey, all of the team, we enjoyed this visit very much and it was very interesting!"
• " It was very interesting, enjoyable and a good service to the Community.It was fun and thank you so much we would much appreciate having you rescue us if we were ever in trouble. PS please rename your Landrover 'Vernie.'" (apparently they all decided upon this when they found out our Team Leaders first name is actually Vernon!)

Wednesday 21st January
Mountain Rescue Services Adjournment Debate in Westminster Hall
As reported on Sunday 18th January 2009, at 9:30 this morning valued friend of the team Dr Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South-East, brought an adjournment debate to highlight work done by mountain rescue teams across the UK, with a view to securing financial support and other supportive measures from Her Majesties Government.

The work carried out by our team featured heavily in the debate, with MPs joining the debate representing the Lake District, Peak District and North Wales. Cave Rescue and the Coastguard Service were also mentioned in the debate.

A full transcript of the debate can be found on the House of Parliament site here. We have provided the complete debate in pdf format here.

The team would like to thank Dr Brian Iddon MP for bringing this adjournment debate to Westminster Hall and for the very large amount of time he has dedicated to gathering the facts to present a full and convincing case which, if the aims of the adjournment debate are successful, will benefit all Mountain Rescue teams across the United Kingdom.

The Bolton MRT would also like to extend its thanks to all other Members of Parliament who cover our operational area, and so readily support our team.

Sunday 18th January
Incident 12/2009
At 11:55 today our Team Leader was contacted by NWAS (Greater Manchester) about an incident in the Beaumont area of Bolton.

Three of our Bolton Mountain Rescue ambulances had just arrived at Hordern Stoops area of Winter Hill, where seven full team call-out members had congregated to walk up Winter Hill / Noon Hill as part of our Sunday area familiarisation / training exercises. A full team callout was initiated vi apager at 11:58 with all other personnel directed to meet at the RV point.

The three team vehicles arrived at the RVP at 12:16, the RVP being 500m away from the casualty site located in the middle of a farmers field full of livestock. The sister (who had been walking with the casualty) and brother-in-law of the casualty met with the team, directing the team across the extremely muddy field to the casualty. Shortly after our vehicles had arrived NWAA Helimed 08 also landed on scene.



The NWAS ambulance crew (from Bolton North Ambulance Station) were already on scene treating the 75 year old female casualty (from Bolton) who had fallen whilst crossing the field, suffering a suspected serious neck of femur fracture.

The ambulance was parked at a different RVP to our Landrover ambulances, and the decision was made to transfer the casualty to the land ambulance rather than using the helicopter due to operational circumstances.



The injured woman was administered morphine and Entenox by the ambulance and helimed crew, and then packaged in to our full length vacuum mattress to stabilise her injuries and transferred on to our Bell stretcher. Then the 18 team members who reached the RV point carried the casualty the 500m across a field to the waiting NWAS ambulance. The ambulance departed at 12:56 with the casualty to Royal Bolton Hospital.


© Carl Silver

The team would like to thank three local young lads who upon seeing the helicopter wandered across the field to see what was going on. To keep them occupied our Team Leader asked the children to look after the teams kit, much to the surprise of the children that we trusted them not to damage anything!

Following the evacuation all personnel returned to clean up, not so much the vehicles, more the muddy boots and leg ware of our members.

The whole team wishes the woman involved in this accident a speedy and successful recovery back to walking again in our local area.

...also on Sunday 18th...
Team to feature in Parliamentary Adjournment Debate on 'Mountain Rescue Services' presented by Dr. Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South East
On Saturday May 31st 2008, Dr. Brian Iddon, Member of Parliament for Bolton South East very kindly met with our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE and our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon, to further research the current state of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team with respect to his role as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Mountain Rescue and Search Group.

Over this recent Christmas recess Dr Brian Iddon, a respected friend of the team has drafted out an Adjournment Debate on 'Mountain Rescue Services', which gives a comprehensive yet succinct overview of MR in England and Wales, and requests that Her Majestys Government consider granting support on many different levels to Mountain Rescue.

In his draft report, Dr. Brian Iddon MP basically uses the Bolton MRT as an example of an MRT he is very familiar with, to then introduce issues of a more regional and national flavour into the debate.

Dr. Brian Iddon in early Janauary 2009 kindly asked Garry Rhodes and Geoff Seddon to cast their expert eyes over his draft report, review and amend it as they thought necessary and this would then form the basis of the Adjournment Debate report. (following Dr. Brian Iddons final confirmation of the report contents).

This has been quite a task for Geoff Seddon in particular, who has spent many a long night this week, drafting and redrafting Dr. Brian Iddons initial report, alongside a great many hours on the telephone with Garry Rhodes our Team Leader.

The Adjournment Debate will take place over a 90 minute time frame, on Wednesday 21st January 2009, in the Westminster Hall Debating Chamber, between 09.30 and 11.00hrs, and all Members of Parliament have been requested to attend. (indeed our National Press Officer Andrew Simpson, also Team Leader of Rossendale and Pendle MRT, has issued a request to all members of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales to lobby their MPs to attend this important - for us all in the MR community - debate).

A UK press release will be made of Dr. Brian Iddons Adjournment Debate report (of which as above, we have had a large input in guiding its content), so we should get some local press coverage of this debate on Mountain Rescue.

Dr. Brian Iddon MP in a letter to our team mentions that having checked and to the best of his research, there has been no previous Adjournment Debate on this subject, so this debate is likely to be a first in Westminster Hall.

With reference to this Adjournment Debate, our dear friend Stewart Hulse MBE (ex Team Leader of Langdale Ambleside MRT) and current member of the Fundraising Committee, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, has also supplied Dr. Brian Iddon MP with some valuable information on initiatives that our national body, that is Mountain Rescue England and Wales, is taking up with the Government regards assistance to Mountain Rescue. (VAT exemption on all goods and services for MRTs including fuel duty on our emergency vehicles).

As mentioned above, our National Press Officer Andy Simpson has issued a comprehensive MPs briefing sheet as part of the lobby process to get all MPs with Mountain Rescue teams operating in their constituences to attend this debate.

Westminster Hall debates run in parallel to the House of Commons and are used by MPs to raise issues and have to be responded to by a Minister. As Dr. Brian Iddons speech (report presentation) is likely to last 15 minutes, that means there is 30 minutes for other MPs to lend their comments to the debate.

This debate will be seen and heard via www.parliamentlive.tv which also has an archive feature so it does not have to be watched live. The debate will also be published in Hansard, the official report of Parliamentary proceedings, and will be found at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090121/hallindx/90121-x.htm - but note that this link will not work until at least Wednesday afternoon, 21st January 2009.

In essence we are urging all MPs to press for urgent action by Her Majestys Government to allevaite the financial burdens placed on our team and all others in England and Wales, as our workloads all collectively increase.

The Bolton MRT is very honoured to be utilised by Dr. Brian Iddon MP in his Adjournment Debate on Mountain Rescue Services as an ' example ' MRT to illustrate the many issues facing Mountain Rescue in England and Wales now and in the immediate future.

The Bolton Mountain Rescue Team now extends an invitation to all the MPs within the areas we operate in to attend this Adjournment Debate, and given that we operate within lowland and upland areas on a very wide operational (emergency calll out taskings) remit, we would expect to see MPs present from Bolton, Wigan, Salford, Manchester, Trafford, Bury, Chorley, Darwen and Blackburn.

Please also refer to previous news articles within this website dated Saturday 31st May 2008, regards our TL and DTL meeting Dr. Brian Iddon MP, Sunday 22nd June 2008, regarding Government funding support for MRTs, and donations kindly granted to the team by Dr. Brian Iddon MP in news reports dated 16th July 2008 and 15th August 2008.

The team would like to extend a huge thanks for all the hard work to date that Dr. Brian Iddon MP and his office have put into researching and gathering the information for this Adjournment Debate., good luck from all your friends at Bolton MRT for a sucessful debate on Wednesday 21st January 2009.

Saturday 17th January
Kind donation of equipment for our Ladybridge Hall base / HQ
The team is pleased to have received today the donation of a brand new upright 'Vax' T1300 vacuum cleaner and a brand new 'BT' Paperjet 55 multifunction 3 in 1 Phone, FAX and PC Colour Printer (A4), both for use at our Ladybridge Hall base / HQ premises.

Both these items have been very kindly donated by Andrew Rhodes of Tyldesley, brother of our Team Leader Garry Rhodes.

...also on Saturday 17th...
Incident 11/2009
At 11.38hrs this morning we were paged by NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre regards the report of an injured mountain biker in the Georges Lane area on the edge of the moors overlooking Horwich.

Having established more details on the location where this injured man was thought to be, a full team call out page was made at 11.46hrs. Ariving at the location given alongside the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance, our Deputy Leader Geoff Seddon discovered no sign of the injured person.

Now with our Team Leader also present, all relocated to the very end of the high moorland road of Coal Pit Road, meeting at Holdens Farm, where we quickly established that the casualty was on the bridlepath just before Holdens Plantation on the fringe of Smithills Moor.

Our Deputy Team Leader Geoff Seddon and Team member Dr Clare Whitney, went immediately to the casualty site closely followed by the Ambulance crew, and together commenced treating the 53 year old male mountain bikers serious lower leg / ankle injury, the mountain biker was a local man from the Sharples, Bolton, area.

Apparently the mountain biker had become unseated from his bike, whilst in the vicinity of some passing horse riders and their mounts, they in turn stayed with the mountain biker up to the arrival ourselves and the Ambulance Service. Other team members in our team Landrovers who had been on hold in the vicinity of Bobs Smithy Public House, awaiting confirmation of the casualty location, responded quickly to the site.

With the casualties injury splinted using a team 'vacuum' splint, and pain relief given, Enotonox gas, the casualty was stretcher evacuated on a Bell Mountain Rescue stretcher back along the bridleway to the waiting NWAS Emergency Ambulance at Holdens Farm.



By 12.47hrs the casualty was in the NWAS Ambulance and on the way to Royal Bolton Hospital.



In total the following were involved in this incident, NWAS Emergency Ambulance and two crew from Blackrod Ambulance Station, 16x Bolton MRT members with a further three 'stood down responding',as not required and three Bolton MRT Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances.

The team would like to thank all at Holdens Farm for putting up with us blocking their access track into their farm for the duration of this incident.

...also on Saturday 17th...
Grateful owner of lost wallet thanks Bolton MRT and the mystery original finder.
On Sunday 11th January 2009, whilst in the team area on Winter Hill, team members in a Team Landrover were approached by a male mountain biker who had found a wallet in the vicinity of Rivington Pike, the mountain biker passing it on to the team to see if we couild trace the owner, the wallet contained credit and store cards, a large amount of cash but no direct contact detials for the owner.

Unfortunately we did not take the name of this honest mountain biker, but promised we would try and find the owner ! (a tall task)

Our Team Leader immediately contacted one of the credit card companies of the credit cards in the wallet, at this stage the company concerned said their card had not yet been reported missing, so took our Team Leaders contact details to pass on to the owner when they phoned to report the card missing, ultimately this never happened.

By mid week no one had contacted our Team Leader, so he once again contacted the credit card company to be told that the card no longer existed on their records !

Our Team Leader then spent some time contacting other leads the cards in the wallet offered (nothing direct) but did manage to get hold of another credit card company.

This time the (different) company involved contacted the card holder, resulting in our Team Leader getting almost staright away a very grateful phone call from the wife of the wallets owner.

This morning the grateful owner of the wallet, in the company of his wife collected the walllet and its contents from our Team Leader, the owner from Worsley telling our Team Leader that he had lost the wallet whilst out mountain biking and had given up all hope of finding it, despite having retraced his long mountain bike route on the day.

To thank our Team Leader for his efforts and time in reuniting him with his wallet he kindly handed over to Garry our Leader a bottle of wine, and asked if through our website we could publicly thank the original finder of his wallet, the 'unknown mountain biker'

So if you are reading this and you were the mountain biker who handed the wallet to us on the Winter Hill summit road last Sunday, then the owner would like to pass on his heartfelt thanks to you.

Sunday 11th January
Incident 10/2009
At 13:41 today we were made aware of a casualty who a suffered a suspected sprained ankle in the Pigeon Tower, Rivington area.

Two of our Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles were already out visiting the site of a previous incident in Farnworth when the United Utilities Ranger telephoned the team with information from Lancashire Police on the casualty being in the Pigeon Tower region of Rivington.

Both vehicles left Farnworth and proceeded to the Pigeon Tower area to search for the casualty site with vehicles approaching from Horwich and Belmont side of Winter Hill.

Our BM4 landrover was the first to reach the casualty, a 32 year old female from the Prestwich area of Manchester out walking with her husband, on a very icy Belmont Road (now little more than a rough surface moorland track). The casualty was being comforted by her husband and two other passing walkers.



The team splinted the woman's fractured ankle and administered Entonox pain relieving gas. Following this treatment the casualty was then evacuated to the waiting NWAA Helimed 08 air ambulance helicopter which had also been called to this incident and had managed to land close by.



In total 11 full team callout members attended the incident, eight people in the two landrover ambulance vehicles, and three others who were out walking in the area.



The local area police constable and a PCSO from Adlington police station also attended having been transported up to the site by the United Utilities ranger John Castelli.

At the conclusion of this incident team members transported the husband of the woman involved back down to the barn area to collect his car.

Later on whilst at hospital collecting our equipment used in this incident the womans husband kindly made an on-the-spot donation of £20.

We would like to take the opportunity to publically thank the two passing mountain bikers who made the initial 999 call and two passing hill walkers, Daniel Crosse and his fiancée Amy who stopped to offer assistance and comfort up to the arrival of ourselves, the police and helimed.

Despite the recent thaw there are still large patches of surface ice on all the moorland tracks and paths in our area. Walkers and mountain bikers to our area are therefore advised to take considerable care whilst out and about.






The long stretch of 3 inch thick ice on this moorland track!

(All pictures courtesy of & © Mike Egan)

Saturday 10th January
Donation from Bolton C.H.A. Rambling Club
Today we are pleased to announce the receipt of a £10.50 donation from Bolton CHA Rambling Club.

The amount was donated by a member who had been unable to attend an event held by the club. In a kind letter enclosed with the donation Bolton C.H.A. Rambling Club wrote "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your team for the recent aid you gave to one of our members."

The team would like to thank Bolton C.H.A. Rambling Club for this kind donation which follows other donations previously from the club (see news articles dated 22nd August 2008, 26th July 2007 and 22nd November 2006.)

...also on Saturday 10th...
Complimentary Copy of Technical Rescue Magazine 54
Today the team received a complimentary copy of issue 54 of the Technical Rescue Magazine. Our Team Leader subscribes to the magazine and occasionally they send an additional copy for the perusal of other team members.

The magazine is a specialist rescue publication which provides product reviews and articles on search and rescue techniques.

Anybody interested in subscribing to the magazine, its website, together with subscription details can be found at www.t-rescue.com.

Wednesday 7th January
Another very kind donation from Mrs W Leadbeater
Today we are extremely pleased to announce another very kind donation of £20.00 from valued team supporter Mrs W Leadbeater.

The whole team membership appreciates and values the thoughtful support from Mrs W Leadbeater and wishes her a very happy New Year. (see also website news articles dated 19th December 2005, 15th December 2006 and 19th October 2007)

Monday 5th January
Incident 9/2009
At 14:37 this afternoon our Team Leader Garry Rhodes was contacted directly by the GMP Force Duty Manager regarding the team's assistance with an ongoing search for a missing woman in the Shevington Vale area of Standish.

With Police investigations becoming more involved, it was decided to put the team on standby at 15:10 in preparation for an early evening search commencement. At the same time, trail dog handler Iain Nicholson and his trail dog Mij (Iain Nicholson, Bowland Pennine MRT & SARDA Wales) were also contacted by our Team Leader to similarly be available for an early evening start.

The woman had been missing since the late the previous evening in circumstances giving the Police cause for the concern.

As team members were assembling at our Ladybridge Hall Base/HQ for a 18:00 departure, the news was received that the missing woman had turned up safely back at her home address and the team was therefore stood down.

In total, at the time of stand-down, 21 team members were responding to this incident, which would also have involved our catering and control trailers.

GMP Police resources known to have been involved in this operation included a GMP Missing Person Search manager, Divisional officers, and the GMP Air Support Unit helicopter.

Sunday 4th January
Incident 8/2009
At 15:43 this afternoon NWAS (Manchester area) paged the team for assistance with a developing incident involving an off-road motorcyclist in the Higher Ince area of Wigan.

A full team pager callout was initiated resulting in 24 team members responding to this incident.

As it turned out, the responding NWAS Response Vehicle paramedic, alongside the NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew and friends of the motorcyclist involved managed together to stretched the injured motorcyclist to the ambulance waiting at the end of Belle Green Lane, Higher Ince.

At this stage, 2 members out of the 24 responding had arrived at the RVP, when the pager stand-down message was transmitted.

(NWAA Helimed 08 had been requested to attend this incident, but with the coming onset of dusk was unable to respond)

Friday 2nd January
2009 New Years Honours to Mountain Rescue
With the announcement of the 2009 New Year Honours list, we would like to pass our congratulations to Dr Albert Roy Cooksey, who has been awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for voluntary service to the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team in Cumbria.

Dr Albert Roy Cooksey, of Broughton, has been recognised for his 23 years of voluntary service as Coniston Mountain Rescue Team leader. The man who replaced Mr Cooksey – who is known as Roy to friends – as rescue team leader has paid tribute to his predecessor and friend.

Anthony Robinson said: “He was the ideal man. He could almost have been born to do it. He was a very experienced rock climber and walker in his own right before he joined the team. He was a Barrovian by birth and is currently living in the South of France. I was his deputy for the entire 23 years. He was one of the best, most experienced and most respected mountain rescue leaders in the country. He led from the front on everything.”

Also to Barry David Gregory, a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for voluntary service to Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team, Holmfirth,West Yorkshire. Barry is a founder member of Woodhead MRT and is still involved as the Treasurer, after 44 years of service.

From all of the membership of Bolton MRT, we pass on our sincere congratulations on your awards.

...also on Friday 2nd...
Wonderful donation from Mrs. P. Potts
Today we received a very kind £80 donation from Mrs. Pamela Potts, of Little Lever, Bolton.

Pamela is a Sports Therapist, and each year instead of sending Christmas cards to her clients, she makes a donation to a local charity.

In an earlier telephone conversation with our Team Leader, Pamela explained that she had decided to choose our team as her charity, given that a lot of her clients are runners and walkers and she explained to our Team Leader that they all mention their appreciation of our dedication and hard work in the local area.

The whole team is very grateful to Mrs. Pamela Potts for her very kind and very thoughtful festive donation.

...also on Friday 2nd...
Fantastic donation from Horwich Rotary Club
Today the team is delighted to announce the receipt of a very kind and very large donation from the Horwich Rotary Club, specifically donated from their Community Service Committee, who believe we play a fantastic role in the local community.

Horwich Rotary Club are very supportive of the Bolton MRT and their kind previous support is much appreciated, which makes this festive £1000 donation all the more appreciateds.

The whole team wishes all the Rotarians at Horwich Rotary Club, via their Chairman of the Community Service Committee Pat Byrne, all the very best wishes for this new year. Please also refer to news articles dated 12th February 2008, (when the Rotary Club of Horwich also very kindly donated £1,000.00) and 5th November 2007.

Thursday 1st January
Incident 7/2009
As part of NWAS (GMA) pre arranged plan to cope with peak demand calls on this festive season night, the Team was mobilised to directly assist NWAS (GMA) with ambulance calls throughout the evening, alongside our colleagues in the British Red Cross.

3 Team members mobilised to crew one Team Landrover Ambulance which was placed at the disposal of NWAS (GMA).

Team members were available from 20:00 Hrs New Year's Eve, with the first job of 2009 being tasked at 00:46 Hrs (Our Incident 1/2009). The last job came in at 05:04 (Our Incident 7/2009) on the morning of New Year's Day.

Following a restocking of vehicles contents and a general tidy up Team members finally closed our base at 06:30 New Year's Day morning.

In total 1 Code Red, 4 Code Amber & 2 Code Green calls were dealt with (Its probably stating the obvious to comment that some of the incidents were drink related)

Yet again we would like to place on record, our grateful thanks to all at NWAS ECC for their tremendous support and assistance during the evening. Similar thanks are extended to the NWAS RRV Crews & general Emergency Ambulance crews we worked alongside.