With the team actively involved in providing standby rescue cover for two concurrent events today, at 13.57hrs our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE was contacted directly by NWAS (Lancashire) ECC for the teams assistance with the report of a collapsed woman in the Rivington Pike area. (This was totally unconnected with the rescue cover events)

Our Team Leader and our BM1 vehicle immediately responded, with the NWAA Helimed 72 also responding from its City Airport Manchester (Barton) base.

Initial information led all responding resources to go to the Rivington Pike area, via the moorland track of Georges Lane, with more information from NWAS ECC leading the team to RVP with the now landed Helimed 72 very close to the Pigeon Tower, within the ruins of the hillside Terraced Gardens at Rivington.

On route our BM1 vehicle met up with a responding NWAS RRV and due to the poor nature of the local moorland tracks, took the solo crew member on board their vehicle.

A sixty two years old woman out walking in the area with her family and their dog (She was visiting from Rugby) had collapsed, leading her family quite rightly to call the ambulance service for help.

At 14.22hrs our first responding personnel arrived on scene, quickly joining up with the Helimed aircrew Paramedics, who had already commenced their treatment of the woman and had placed her on the aircrafts stretcher.

Team members assisted the aircrew with the short carry to the helicopter, and then formed a ‘safety cordon’ around the aircraft for its take off, which occurred at 14.42hrs, with the woman and her husband being flown direct to Blackburn Hospital for further assessment and treatment.

The following resources were deployed to this incident;

• North West Air Ambulance helicopter ‘ Helimed 72’ from City Airport Manchester (Barton)
• North West Ambulance Service (Lancashire) Emergency Control Centre and a solo crewed Rapid Response Vehicle.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, twelve team members and two Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles.