Report from team member Diane Blakeley

This evening we were the guest speakers for Ladybridge WI’s monthly meeting. Gill Leigh, David Cook and myself attended on behalf of the team. This was David’s first WI meeting and he seemed a little wary about joining in with the singing of Jerusalem. Gill and myself however are old hands back in the late 80’s and early 90’s we used to travel across Lancashire along with Team President Bob Hutchinson to talk to WI’s. We last gave a talk to Ladybridge WI back in the eighties and they have supported us ever since. In 2011 we were their charity of the year and received a fantastic donation of £720, which was the third time we had received such a donation.

Tonight I started with a presentation explaining a bit about the work the team does, its history and some of our recent call outs. Gill and David then explained and demonstrated some of the rescue and medical equipment we use including the pulse oximeters and crag rescue kit which were bought from the WI’s donation. Gill also answered some questions before I showed a film about Bolton MRT which included photographs of various call outs. No surprise the biggest “aww” was when Search Dog Boris appeared in the film. The film also thanked the WI for their support, which led in perfectly to me thanking the members on behalf of Bolton MRT for all their support for more than 25 years and presenting them with a thank you plaque.

With all the formal parts of the evening over it was tea and cake time. Normally Gill and I have to stick to just the tea as we are intolerant to gluten, much to our surprise my mum (Ladybridge WI Vice President) had made us some gluten free banana cake which we polished off very quickly indeed. Thanks mum.

The team received as a thank you a speakers fee of £35.