Excuse the forum hijack…my thanks in advance

A message from my Mountain Rescue Team Secretary

Last weeks events in Machynlleth have shone a light on the work of the many Mountain Rescue and Search and Rescue volunteer Teams across the UK. With the mods kind grace (I hope) I thought I’d put up some information on the Team I have the honour of being a member of. I’m also making a plea on the behalf of all MRTs for support and donations.

In addition to a number of “simple” callouts, in the last three weeks the Bridgend, south Wales, based Western Beacons Mountains Search And Rescue Team has;

– searched for, found and recovered the body of a dog walker near Milford Haven
– searched for, found and recovered the body of a despondent male near Pembroke Dock
– had 10 to 15 team members searching day and night for April Jones from last Tuesday through to Sunday
– searched at night for, found and safely rescued a walker who had fallen in a deep hole near Fishguard

“Proper” mountain rescue callouts are an ever shrinking part of what the Teams do. More and more calls come in to search lowland and urban areas for potential suicides, missing children and more. Sadly these operations don’t always have a happy ending

It has been a stressful and harrowing time for all of the Team. Especially for the guys who attended the first two call outs and still turned out for the Machynlleth search. They have given their time from their families, used up sparse leave time from work and all without pay or recognition (not that they ask for any!).

These are the most impressive people I have ever had the privilege to know and work with. The same can be said about any volunteer member of a Search and Rescue Team.

All MRTs are registered charities which rely on public and corporate support.

This is where you come in!

If you have the time to spare, please consider joining your local MRT. You don’t have to be a super fit racing snake (I’m certainly not!), as there plenty of jobs to do that do not involve running up and down mountains.

Most Teams have Operational Support members. These members attend callouts and provide vital support functions that free up the hill members to the hands on rescue work. This can be driving, radio operation, logistics, search management or just making the tea.

Teams also need the “back room” staff to help the non-operational management of the charity. Fundraising, publicity, accounts, building maintenance, vehicle maintenance and so on. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to maintain the Team’s operational standing.

If you can’t give your time you can always give your money.

If you would like to support the Western Beacons team you can donate money via text message. Just text WBMR40 followed by £1, £2, £3, £4, £5, or £10 to 70070

From now until November 17th the South Wales Echo newspaper is running its “Wish 2012” charitable donation campaign. The paper is giving shares of a £25,000 fund to charities across south Wales. Tokens are printed in each issue of the paper for the public to cut out and send to the charity. The more tokens a charity collects the bigger the share of the fund. If you can collect tokens on the Team’s behalf please send them to;
Wish 2012
27 Regent Street East
Neath
SA11 2RU

Search and Rescue volunteers come from all walks of life, have varied skills to offer, come from all types of background. They are all different. The one thing they have in common is a commitment and desire to get out there, day or night, to help those in dire need.

Now they need your help.

http://www.westernbeacons.org.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/westernbeaconsmrt
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz…yle/wish-2012/

Hello Scotjohn, myself and I would wager everyone here appreciate the work you do.

I’d always considered myself a bit under skilled for MRT work, certainly not a fitness issue. Hadn’t really considered the back room help, so thanks for bringing it to light for me. A donation will be on the way, and another to my local team.