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.